Several constituents contacted me recently to raise their concerns that the First Aid Unit at Bicester Community Hospital was closed on 3rd of September. I was extremely concerned to hear that constituents continued to be referred to the hospital by the NHS 111 triage service, despite the unit being closed.
I raised this closure as a matter of urgency with Dr Nick Broughton, CEO of Oxford Health. Dr Broughton confirmed that the unit was closed on the evening of 3rd September owing to a lack of available qualified staff. I understand this decision was taken as a last resort, as it would have been clinically unsafe to open.
I am told that the NHS 111 service was not made aware that the unit had closed. The building was left open and signage advertising the closure was also not sufficient. I have been reassured that the service team have identified what went wrong in this instance and have taken the necessary steps required to prevent such a situation occurring in the future.
I will be requesting a meeting with the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group to discuss this above closure in more detail.
