Minor illness centre serving Doncaster will not re-open until middle of 2021

Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group decided against opened the Mexborough minor illnesses centre until April, after it was closed down because of the coronavirus.

The decision was made by the CCG’s executive committee in an online meeting.

They also decided to put back a switch of the Doncaster GPs out of hours service phone number, to divert calls to NHS 111, until April. This was because of concerns over the capacity of the NHS 111 service to deal with any more calls during the current pandemic.

The minor illness element of the Mexborough Urgent Treatment Centre, based in the Montagu Hospital, Adwick Road, was stopped as part of the response to the coronavirus, and the centre has only been offering minor injury services since then. The minor injuries element of the department remains open.

The minor illness centre had only been operating since the start of this year after the site had been updated to Urgent Treatment Centre status, having previously been only classed as a minor injuries unit.

A report had stated: “Taking into account a number of factors, including the current levels of system resilience, impact of recovery work needed, potential for a further Covid 19 surge, and the impact of winter on the local system is it recommended that both changes are delayed until April 2021.”

CCG Chairman Dr David Crichton acknowledged that the Mexborough UTC would be of benefit over the winter period and had high usage from practices. But it was suggested that more patients could use the Same Day Health Centre at Cavendish court in Doncaster town centre, in the meantime, which was not full.

CCG chief officer Jackie Pederson said the aim of the UTC had not been to provide a walk in service and that this also was in conflict with what she described as a ‘talk before you walk’ national model that is in development.

NHS bosses brought in the minor illnesses unit to keep as many patients as possible away from the DRI site by giving them a service closer to home, said an official report last year.

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