THE Minor Injuries Unit at Northwich’s Victoria Infirmary will soon open at weekends — and include an X-ray service for the first time.

New opening times come into effect at the unit from this Saturday (January 9, 2021), with services open to patients from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 1pm at weekends.

Mid Cheshire NHS Trust Chief Executive James Sumner said: “We know that people living in the Northwich area really value the services we provide at Victoria Infirmary.

“Our team of dedicated staff are available to support you, and we have worked hard to keep the service open for longer to provide urgent care safely in the community.

“Patient safety is at the heart of our service delivery and we’re very pleased to now have a team embedded and ready to offer an enhanced seven-day service to support people in the local area.”

The extension of the opening times comes just a few months after Mr Sumner said the organisation was working ‘on plans to develop a new infirmary in Northwich which would provide an equivalent and hopefully enhanced range of services to the existing infirmary but in state of the art healthcare buildings’.

Those comments were laid out in an open letter to residents after a petition against shortened opening times gathered more than 3,000 signatures.

Initially, bosses cut the unit’s opening times to 9am to 5pm, weekdays only, due to extra pressures on the Infirmary with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last July, it was announced that those opening times were to remain in place until April 2021 — but the changes revealed today reverse that decision.

The enhanced GP out of hours service will continue to run from 6.30pm to 10pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 6pm at the weekend with the option of speaking to a GP remotely or a home visit from 6pm to 10pm on a Saturday and Sunday.