NURSES at Devizes Hospital's minor injuries unit have been working extra night shifts and some have foregone their annual leave to ensure the 24-hour service was maintained.

The revelation was made at a meeting of Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust last Thursday at which the board decided to reduce the unit's opening hours to 8am to 10pm from October this year.

Members of the public who attended the trust meeting at Devizes Town Hall were surprised to hear of the staffing problems at the Devizes minor injury unit.

David Sharp, manager of the minor injury units in Kennet and North Wiltshire, said due to the long hours they were working, nurses were missing out on updating their training. They had given up annual leave in order to keep the unit staffed 24 hours a day.

Mr Sharp said: "That has meant that on occasions people attending the unit during the day with cuts to their hand that need suturing have to go to district general hospitals in Swindon, Salisbury or Bath because the nurses have not kept their skills up-to-date through training."

Mr Sharp said it was a small number of people that had been sent on to other hospitals.

He said the unit at Devizes had been understaffed for the last two years. It has two-and-a-half nurse vacancies which the trust had been unable to fill.

He said: "The Primary Care Trust has spent £14,000 advertising these posts. We have advertised in the national nursing press but we have had no success.

"We did manage to recruit one nurse but no sooner did she start than another nurse gave in her notice because her husband got a job in another part of the country."

He paid tribute to the nurses who had gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure the unit operates 24 hours a day.

"The nurses have been working extra night shifts to keep the service open at night," he said.

"They have given up annual leave and they have been coming in on their days off to ensure the unit is staffed."

Mr Sharp said the decision to reduce the hours from October would resolve the staffing crisis and enable the nurses to undergo training.

He said: "The average number of people attending the unit at night is two.

"We accept there will be a loss of the service at night but what we are aiming to do is improve the quality of what is available in the daytime when the majority of patients attend.

"We have no emergency nurse practitioners at the Devizes unit while we do at the Chippenham and Savernake units.

"By reducing the hours at Devizes we will be able to train the nurses there and improve their skills to benefit patients."

Mr Sharp said from October people with minor cuts and other injuries sustained at night could go to Chippenham minor injury unit, the Royal United Hospital, Bath, Great Western Hospital, Swindon, or Salisbury District Hospital, all open 24 hours.

He said people would still be able to ring the out of hours number for their GP which would put them through to a nurse based at Chippenham who would give callers advice about what to do.

For a serious ailment such as an asthma attack he advised that people call an ambulance.

The X-ray service at Chippenham Hospital only operates during the day.

Mr Sharp said people who require X-rays at night are either sent on to the district general hospitals depending on how bad their condition is, or return the following day to Chippenham Hospital.

Phil Day, the director of community services at the trust, said the trust was considering whether to have an on-call radiographer during the night for Chippenham Hospital.