A CRUCIAL specialist nurse is being recruited at Victoria Infirmary following a recent increase in demand.

James Sumner is chief executive at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – the body that runs Victoria Infirmary, along with Leighton Hospital and Elmhurst, in Winsford.

Speaking at a Cheshire East Council meeting on Thursday where pressure in the NHS came under the spotlight, Mr Sumner told councillors that increased demand at Victoria Infirmary has led to the need for another emergency nurse practitioner.

He explained that while the minor injuries unit was seeing ‘about 40 people a day only a few years ago’, it now has ‘about 80 people through the door’ on some days.

Mr Sumner said: “We know that we are going to need another emergency nurse practitioner in that minor injuries unit – we need it now.

Northwich Guardian:

“We managed to recruit last month. It will be two to three years before that person has the skills to be able to operate independently in that particular unit.

“So this isn’t picking someone from over here and putting them over there.

“These are very well-trained – and rightly so – individuals who need a lot of experience of managing, particularly when they are on-site and operating on their own.”

Victoria Infirmary currently has one emergency nurse practitioner on-site and a nurse working alongside them, the CEC committee was told.

The move to recruit a new specialist nurse is a sign of investment in Northwich by Mid Cheshire Hospitals.

The NHS trust was urged by councillors and campaigners to keep all its current services in the town back in July 2018, when hospital bosses confirmed they would consider moving them out of Victoria Infirmary and into a new facility.

Mid Cheshire Hospitals confirmed at the time that Victoria Infirmary had been hit by subsidence and that a ‘significant amount of money’ would be required to bring the whole site up to modern standards.

It also confirmed that it would consider moving services to the public sector hub that Cheshire West and Chester Council is keen to build as part of regeneration at Weaver Square.

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Two inpatient wards were closed at Victoria Infirmary in 2010 after failing an electrical test, and significant repair work would be required to bring the area back into use.