Call for Oswestry to have an urgent care site

Councillor Paul Milner said Oswestry's minor injuries unit is the busiest in the county – despite it being one of the units open the least amount of hours.

He said it strengthens the case for an urgent care centre to be based in the town. Last year 9,539 patients used the unit at Oswestry Health Centre in Thomas Savin Road.

He was speaking following a meeting on urgent care provision. The meeting in Oswestry was one of a number being held by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Urgent care centres would be created as part of the proposed shake-up of healthcare and A&E units in the county. They would be available to people who need non-emergency and non-life threatening treatment. But fears have been raised that some areas could miss out.

Currently there are minor injuries units in towns including Whitchurch, Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Bishop's Castle.

Councillor Milner said: "Local health services need to remain local, and with Oswestry being the second biggest town in the county and having the most-used minor injuries unit I think it needs an urgent care centre – and this needs to be sooner rather than later.

"We need to save people from travelling to Shrewsbury and Telford, especially as it's even harder for people in Oswestry to get to Telford."

He said overall the meeting held at the Guildhall was "positive".

"Really I think the CCG were inviting people there for them to contribute their ideas and get their views across in order to help shape the future of urgent care in the county and to feed in the overall conversation," he said.

"I think a lot of good views and ideas were expressed such as extending Oswestry minor injuries unit's opening times because it's the busiest unit but one of the ones open the least number of hours. People were also asking about when decisions were going to be made."

Councillor Milner also said he believed people needed better educating on what services minor injuries units offer and suggested the county's units opening times be uniform.

Richard Caddy, a spokesman for the CCG, said the purpose of the meetings were to discuss how best to provide urgent care in rural Shropshire with the current facilities.

He said from the meetings the CCG will collate responses by around April or May which will determine what an urgent care centre will look like before announcing where it will be located.

Councillors stressed the importance of the town having an urgent care centre, as well as calling for Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to keep its A&E department, at a recent meeting of Oswestry Town Council.