The Friends of Burnham on Sea War Memorial Hospital were shocked to read on the 28th February on the web site ‘Burnham-on-Sea.Com‘ of the intention of the Somerset Foundation NHS Trust to close the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) part of the Hospital and transfer the service to Burnham Medical Centre. This decision appears to have been taken without any consultation of stakeholders. The way that the Trust has approached this matter appears to be an attempt to bulldoze this change through before the public realise what is happening.
We recognise that there have been occasions when the MIU has had to close due to staff shortages. This is certainly not ideal, but we remain to be convinced that outsourcing the service to the Medical Centre is the best or only solution.
It has been suggested that the Medical Centre is able to offer a more modern facility with improved clinical reliance than our Hospital. No one has ever approached us for funds to update the MIU or its equipment and been refused, so we are unaware of exactly what is lacking. In respect of the age of the facility the Hospital has been updated many times over the course of its life and as far as we are aware it is not short of space or equipment for the services that it offers. We informally understand that the improved clinical resilience suggested in the article relates to the proposed ability of the Medical Centre to transfer staff from other duties at the Centre to assist with the MIU. We fail to see why it could not be arranged for surplus Medical Centre staff to be utilised in the current facilities on the Hospital premises.
The population of Burnham doubles during the summer months. As a holiday destination focused on the family market the presence in the Town of an MIU with walk in services is essential for the inevitable bumps and falls that children incur whilst playing, not to mention the numerous minor health problems that people experience when away from home and their local medical support services. The owners of our local holiday parks frequently tell us how much the MIU service is valued by their customers. On many occasions we have been the nominated charity of the year by these businesses emphasising the good opinion of the service they receive from the Hospital based MIU.
We will be taking our concerns to the Trust, now that we are aware of the situation. Since this news broke, we have been given to understand that the other areas of the Hospital are not affected by these changes.
3rd March 2025
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