A PETITION to save Stroud and Cirencester Minor Injuries Units from overnight closure has passed 5000 signatures - triggering a debate on the issue at Shire Hall.

Gloucestershire County Council will discuss the planned changes to the two unit’s opening hours on Wednesday, September 14.

It comes after a joint campaign from residents, patients and councillors in the two towns to keep 24 hour urgent care services at their Minor Injury and Illness Units (MIIUs).

A total of 5,345 signatures were gathered on two separate petitions created by Stroud Constituency Labour Party and Cirencester county councillor Joe Harris.

Both are calling for a rethink of the Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust’s plans to shakeup the opening hours of the county’s seven MIIUs.

The changes would effectively see an end to out-of-hours healthcare at Stroud and Cirencester Hospitals.

Tim Lezzard, vice chair of the Stroud Constituency Labour Party, said: “The response we’ve seen from both communities has been astonishing.

“In Dursley last weekend we gathered 200 signatures in two hours. So many people have used these services over the years.

“Hopefully this council debate will help raise many the concerns people are feeling about these changes to opening hours.

“We want to start asking real questions and send a message to Gloucestershire Care Services and Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group that our communities are not going to just lie down an accept this.”

A rally will be held outside Shire Hall that morning to protest against the plans.

Debbie Hicks, the other vice chair of the SCLP, said: “This rally is a cross-party, community event to work in unity to save our MIU's and keep them open 24 hours in the face of £22 billion pounds worth of cuts from the government.

“We hope to highlight wider cuts to the NHS and the dangers and risks for the public and send a message to county councillors, Gloucestershire Care Services and the Clinical Commissioning Group that they must listen to and represent their voters and communities, who in a very short space of a few weeks have signed a petition that has exceeded 5345 and are angry and worried they will lose their local MIU's and hospitals.

“People in the community don't want the options outlined in the MIU review of 8am-8pm or 8am -11pm, they want to keep a 24 hour service.”

Lesley Williams, leader of the Labour Group at GCC, said she hoped to speak at the debate.

“This really is the thin edge of the wedge. Again and again we continue to see our public services eroded,” she said.

“I plan to speak at this debate so that we can hopefully highlight the issue further.

“The depth of feeling among thousands of people in the community has been amazing. It shows just how many people are really concerned about these changes.”

Stroud News and Journal:

The Trust is proposing to change the opening hours of both units so that neither would stay open after 11pm or open before 8am.

The overhaul comes as part of a review into the safety and staffing levels of Gloucestershire’s seven MIIUs.

NHS bosses say the changes are necessary as the current model of overnight care is regularly underused and economically unsustainable.

It argues the changes will allow for easier nurse recruitment and provide value for money – while stressing the changes are “not about cost-cutting”.

But the overhaul has sparked dismay from many in the community who see the loss of out-of-hours care as the gradual dwindling of NHS services in Stroud and beyond.

Many say the changes are being made in a bid to save money and have been forced due to a chronic failure to recruit enough nurses.

They are now demanding that the Trust rethink its review so that the MIIUs in Stroud and Cirencester remain open 24 hours a day.

GCC’s full council meeting will be held at 10am. Members of the public are welcome to attend and sit in the gallery. The debate should be half an hour long.

The petition will be referred to Gloucestershire Care Services (GCS) and Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group along with the minutes of the council debate.

GCS’s seven week engagement period into the changes ended last week.

A final decision will be made by the NHS Trust at its board meeting on September 20.

GCS say that feedback received will be compiled into an outcome report and used to inform a new operating model for MIIUs that will begin on October 1, 2016.

Gloucestershire’s MIIUs offer timely support to people with urgent, but not life-threatening, healthcare needs.

MIIUs provide care and treatment for minor eye injuries, minor fractures, minor head injuries, sprains, cuts and wounds, skin problems such as rashes, bites, stings and infections etc.