The Community Treatment Centre has been open since late August, with people now able to access medical support overnight, following the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s (CFT) decision to close Stratton Minor Injury Unit’s overnight service in December 2018. Cllr Parsons informed those present at the full council meeting that in 50 days of the service being active, approximately 111 people had made use of it at night, although he was unsure of an exact figure, due to the 111 service feeling it should be a higher number and other people from the MIU service saying it should be lower.
Cllr Parsons said: “I think we can confidently say it is around the 111 figure with people attending over night.
“Although 80 of them were through illness and not injury, it is what you’d expect as not many people are out injuring themselves overnight.”
Cllr Parsons was encouraged by the figures given to him, as he explained 92 of the cases would’ve ended up in an emergency department if Stratton’s new service wasn’t there.
“That is a huge saving. Anytime anyone walks into an emergency department, anywhere they walk in they will charge the CFT for it, so this is a big saving of over £9,000 in two months.
“That makes the service look financially viable.”
Cllr Parsons went onto explain that there had been three incidents during those weeks where the adjoining hospital had emergency incidents, which the on-call clinician from the Community Treatment Centre was able to deal with. “This meant that they didn’t have to call out someone from Bodmin who would’ve previously had to deal with the issue.”
According to the Cornwall councillor there have also been incidents where paramedics had brought patients to the clinician to be treated in Stratton, as opposed to Barnstaple or further afield. He said: “Not only were they treated quicker but it also meant an ambulance wasn’t taken away from the area.”
Despite this positivity about the active use of the overnight service, Cllr Parsons reminded the council that the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust would be looking at how much money it is saving in keeping it open overnight.
“The quality will be assessed using the people that had been through the process, they will try some social media and automated feedback surveys. They will actively put bodies in overnight to see how it is working and just ask people of their experiences in the service.”
Although the figures might reflect a saving and be a positive outcome for the service, there will need to be further scrutiny.
Cllr Parsons explained: “If the 92 overnight ended up in an emergency department the following day the figure wouldn’t look so good.
“It has its advantages of course, as emergency departments would have a lot more staff and more kit available in the day but nonetheless it might not look as good. However I am very pleased with the results so far.”
Not only is Cllr Parsons pleased with the overnight services’ performance, but it has also impressed elsewhere across Cornwall. Helston have also recently adopted the same model as Stratton’s Community Treatment Centre.
Cllr Parsons added: “They have adopted the same model as it is woking well here. This invokes a lot of trust in what we are doing.
“We will be meeting either before or just after Christmas to get more figures. But all-in-all I think it’s been a good thing.”
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