Coronavirus: Urgent Care Centre at Newark Hospital, Boundary Road, temporarily suspends overnight opening due to pandemic pressures
Newark Urgent Care Centre has temporarily suspended overnight opening due to coronavirus pressures.
As part of Sherwood Forest Hospitals’ NHS Foundation Trust's response to Covid-19, the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) at Newark Hospital will be temporarily closed from Monday, April 6, between 10pm and 9am.
The overnight closure is scheduled to last for three months initially and the UCC will return to its current operating model when safe to do so, once pandemic pressures reduce.
It will remain open and running as usual from 9am until 10pm, allowing for walk-in patients to attend for urgent care needs.
Richard Mitchell, chief executive at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We did not take this decision lightly, but this is a planned move in order for us to maintain a safe level of staffing and to focus colleagues where we need them the most during this challenging time.
"This decision was taken with the full agreement of clinical colleagues. We know the number of patients we see overnight at Newark is very low, and this change will help us centralise our colleagues to make sure we can give the best care possible to the patients that will need it the most during the unprecedented challenge of coronavirus.
“I would like to reassure colleagues and patients that the Newark UCC will return to its current overnight hours once we are able to do so.
“In the meantime we continue to urge all of our community to follow the Government’s stay home, save lives message, to help tackle the spread of the virus.”
Anyone who needs urgent care between 10pm and 9am is asked to attend their next nearest urgent care facility or to access NHS 111 online or over the phone.
Capacity within the 111 service has been significantly increased to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The service will be able to provide advice about whether patients need an overnight consultation and get clinical advice where required.
In an emergency, you should phone 999.
Do not go to your GP, pharmacy or hospital if you have symptoms associated with coronavirus. Instead you should stay at home for at least seven days if you have either:
- A high temperature and/or
- A new continuous cough
If you live with other people, they should stay at home for 14 days from the day the first person acquired symptoms.
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