HEALTH bosses have apologised again for a “communication failure” which meant a hospital unit was closed with almost no notice to the public or stakeholders.

Launceston Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) closed temporarily on July 25 due to staff shortages but Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) failed to announce the closure.

As a result other local health providers, the public and politicians were unaware of the closure which meant that some patients were sent to the unit to find it was shut. The closure was greeted with shock and a petition was launched to get it reopened.

Afterwards the NHS trust apologised for not making a timely announcement, an apology which was repeated at a meeting of Cornwall Council’s health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee today.

At that meeting councillors heard that Launceston MIU had reopened on October 1, as planned, and the trust also said it was committed to providing MIU services across Cornwall.

CPFT is responsible for 10 MIUs in Cornwall in Bodmin, Camborne and Redruth, Falmouth, Launceston, Liskeard, Helston, Isles of Scilly, Newquay, St Austell and Stratton.

Most of the MIUs are run by nurses with specialist training and most have access to X-ray facilities.

At the committee meeting this morning CPFT also revealed that it will be investing £400,000 at Launceston Hospital to provide a new X-ray machine and building works for the machine.

Discussing the closure of the Launceston MIU in July CPFT said that it had a “communication failure” and said they “sincerely apologise” for the error.

The committee heard that the decision to close the unit temporarily was to ensure that sufficient staff could be trained so that the unit could open on a permanent basis.

Staff from CPFT explained that they did not want a “stopping and starting” service as it might mean that people would not know where to go or what services are available.

Committee member Jayne Kirkham asked whether the MIUs were going to be part of the NHS future planning in Cornwall and whether investment was planned in other MIUs.

She was told that the MIUs had played an important role in taking some of the demand and pressure off emergency departments, especially during the busy times this summer.

The CPFT representative said: “We are extremely pleased that we are able to put service as close to homes as possible and to enable our emergency departments to look after those with life-threatening illnesses and injuries.

“At the start of this week we had our emergency department in the best position it has been in for some time and we are really pleased that our network of MIUs has been able to support our emergency services.”

The committee heard that recruiting and retaining staff was still a challenge but that work was being done to address this to ensure that there are sufficient staff coming through the system.