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Town emergency
hospital service
axed next month
HEALTH campaigners are furious that the out-of-hours service which provides emergency appointments at Newmarket Hospital outside normal surgery hours is being axed next month to save money.
Harmoni, the organisation which provides the service on behalf of NHS Suffolk during weekday evenings and all day at weekends and bank holidays, confirmed that it would no longer be operating the service at Newmarket Hospital.
Between July and September last year the service dealt with 421 patients.
Patients will soon have to travel to the Mildenhall Health Clinic if they want to see a doctor.
Cllr Warwick Hirst, chairman of Newmarket’s Health Forum, said the first he had heard of the decision was when he was alerted by the clerk of a neighbouring town council.
“I am hugely disappointed with the decision and the fact that we have not been consulted,” said Cllr Hirst. “This was an important service provided for the people of Newmarket who are now being told they will have to get in a car and drive to Mildenhall if they want to see a doctor outside normal surgery hours.”
And Cllr Shirley Crickmere, a forum member and long time campaigner for Newmarket Hospital, added: “I am very very disappointed and very cross. We used to be very involved in decisions made about the town’s healthcare but we have been pushed aside and those making the decisions just don’t talk to us any more.”
Dr David Lee, regional medical director of Harmoni, said the changes had been discussed with health care professionals, but admitted there had been no local consultation.
He said from next month patients living in the Newmarket area who felt they had an urgent medical need would ring the 0300 130 3066 number as they do currently but if they needed to see a doctor they would be offered an appointment at either Mildenhall or Bury St Edmunds – both within the stipulated 30-minute travel time.
He said the Mildenhall facility was being retained because it catered for patients in Lakenheath and Brandon whose journey time would be more than 30 minutes if travelling to Bury St Edmunds was their only option.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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