A Nottinghamshire hospital’s Urgent Treatment Centre is to remain closed overnight for another 12 months because NHS managers say it is ‘not possible to safely staff’ the service.
Newark Hospital’s Urgent Treatment Centre was temporarily closed for overnight admissions in April 2020 due to pressures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The closure was extended in 2021, and it has now been extended again, the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) says.
The service will remain open during its current hours of 9am to 10pm, with last patient admissions at 9.30pm.
The site is run by Sherwood Forest Hospitals.
The CCG said the decision has not been consulted on as “it is not possible to safely staff the Urgent Treatment Centre overnight and so there is no alternative to the continuation of the temporary closure”.
Lucy Dadge, Chief Commissioning Officer at the group, wrote to Councillor Sue Saddington (Con), chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council’s health scrutiny committee, informing her of the move.
The closure will now be extended until the end of June 2023.
Senior CCG staff will attend a council meeting and answer questions on the extension.
The move will be discussed during the Nottinghamshire County Council health committee meeting on June 14.
