Hospital urgent care upgrade after campaign

Urgent care services in Rugby are set to be upgraded, with doctors returning to lead treatment after a years-long campaign by local residents.

Hospital of St Cross previously had its own A&E department, but it closed in 1997, and nurses currently run the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC).

However, thousands of people have signed an open letter penned by Rugby MP John Slinger, calling for changes to allow more patients to be treated closer to home, rather than travel to University Hospital Coventry (UHC).

Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) said following a consultation it would be introducing a new model for urgent care in Rugby that would see the introduction of a GP-led service.

Resident Simon Burne signed the open letter after his wife suffered a small stroke and had to go to UHC which he said was "absolute chaos".

Burne said the A&E department at UHC was "like a battle zone" and "so crowded".

"After eight hours we were called in to see a doctor - it is absolute chaos because so many people go to UHCW because there's really no equivalent service in Rugby," he added.

The BBC has approached the hospital trust for a response.

More than 2,300 people added their names to Slinger's open letter, addressed to Simon Trickett, chief executive of the ICB, in just two days, after he published it on Saturday morning.

Slinger said that showed how strongly people across Rugby and the surrounding area "feel that urgent care needs to improve".

An ICB spokesperson said the organisation had already increased the services available at Rugby UTC, including access to out-of-hours GP appointments, helping more patients receive care closer to home.

It added that the introduction of a doctor-led service at the unit would strengthen urgent care services across the region.

The ICB has previously said Rugby residents raised concerns about long waiting times and the distance to their nearest A&E department at University Hospital Coventry.

While praising staff at the hospital, Slinger previously said he wanted nurses at the UTC to be "supported by doctors" so that "more residents can get the care they need closer to home", adding that concern about urgent care provision in Rugby had existed "for several years".

He welcomed recent changes that brought GP out-of-hours services into the treatment centre in Rugby but said more needed to be done.

Slinger previously argued that Rugby's healthcare provision has not kept pace with the town's growth.

He said the borough's population grew by 14.3% between 2011 and 2021, while accident and emergency departments at nearby hospitals, including University Hospital Coventry, continue to face significant pressure.

In details released this week, the ICB said as part of its Integrated Urgent and Emergency Care programme it had recently invited people from across Coventry and Warwickshire to share their views on local urgent care services, and had been "extremely grateful for the level of engagement".

"This feedback, including from Rugby residents, is helping shape a new integrated urgent care model designed to improve access to services and ensure patients receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time," it said.

"The proposed model will strengthen urgent care services across Coventry and Warwickshire by expanding the care available, including the introduction of a GP-led service at Rugby Urgent Treatment Centre.

"These improvements will help more patients access urgent care without having to visit hospital."

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