Further chance to have a say on Newark Urgent Treatment Centre opening hours

Newark residents will get another opportunity to have their say about the opening hours of the urgent treatment centre (UTC) at Newark Hospital and share their experience of accessing NHS urgent care services overnight.

In response to feedback at previous meetings, an additional evening event has been added on Tuesday 17 October at Newark YMCA, starting at 6.30pm. It will be the last of six public face-to-face and online meetings, three of which have already taken place.

NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board is gathering the views of local people about the best permanent opening hours for the UTC.

The UTC, run by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, provides urgent care and non-life-threatening treatment for injuries or conditions, such as cuts, simple broken bones, wounds, minor burns and minor head, eye and back injuries. This is different to emergency care, which is for life-threatening illnesses such as heart attacks, strokes or serious accidents needing immediate treatment from the ambulance service (via 999) and A&E.

The UTC is open for 13 hours a day, from 9am to 10pm, which exceeds the national standard for UTCs of 12 hours per day.

The current opening hours were put in place in March 2020 as a temporary measure to address ongoing staffing issues made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Prior to the pandemic, the UTC was open 24 hours a day but was often forced to close overnight at short notice due to lack of staff availability. Typically, when the UTC was open overnight, it would treat, on average, one patient per hour, compared to between 4 and 6 patients per hour during the daytime.

Local health leaders are committed to providing a safe, sustainable urgent treatment centre at Newark Hospital, operating at least 12 hours per day, which is in line with the specification for urgent treatment centres across England.

Dr David Briggs, Medical Director of NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, said: “As shown through the substantial on-going investment in new services at Newark Hospital, we’re committed to providing high quality, sustainable services for local people, supporting Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s vision that Newark Hospital is a valued and vibrant community asset.

“It’s important to us that as many people as possible are given the opportunity to share their views on and get answers to any questions about the UTC’s opening hours, so we’ve taken comments on board from the meetings we’ve held so far and organised a further evening event on 17 October. We hope as many people as possible come along to have their say or complete the online survey.”

The remaining public meetings are:

• Thursday 12 October 2023 – 11am to 12.30pm, North Muskham Community Centre, Nelson Lane, Newark, NG23 6HL (British Sign Language Interpreter available).
• Saturday 14 October 2023 – 10am to 11.30am, Online Session via MS Teams Live Event.
• Tuesday 17 October – 6.30pm to 8pm, YMCA Community and Activity Village, Lorde Hawke Way, Newark-on-Trent, NG24 4FH.

Register to attend at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/newark-hospital-urgent-treatment-centre-opening-times-public-session-tickets-705299859867 or via the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire website at www.notts.icb.nhs.uk 

Further engagement work has included targeted sessions with local community groups and an online survey, which has already attracted more than 800 responses. The online survey is available via the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire website.