HEALTH chiefs are promising that Trafford General's urgent care centre (UCC) will remain open - but there may be changes in the way it is run and staffed.

Officials at NHS Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Central Manchester University Hospitals Foundation Trust (CMFT) spoke out in a bid to reassure patients, two months after fears were raised that the unit could be further downgraded to a minor injuries unit.

Councillors and health chiefs met last week to discuss the future of the unit - which was downgraded from an A and E unit to an urgent care centre in 2013.

Dr Nigel Guest, chief clinical officer, Trafford CCG said: “To be clear, the urgent care centre will remain open.

"There may be some changes, however, to the way it is run and staffed, in order to ensure it remains safe and is an appropriate clinical model.”

The CCG and CMFT are working together, alongside partners from across the Trafford and Manchester health system, and they say any resulting proposals will take account of the analysis of the facts surrounding patient flows and data, which is currently being undertaken.

The analysis will also examine the volumes and mix of patients using the UCC at present and what sort of care they need, with consideration of the most appropriate staffing mix to provide this care.

They say that early analysis indicates that the patients attending the UCC generally do not require the skills of a specialist A&E doctor, and that the numbers of patients attending in the evening can be as low as two per hour.

The health bodies will draw up proposals for the unit which will be considered by the Trafford integrated clinical re-design board, which is independently chaired, and scrutinises all aspects of health and social care in Trafford.

Mobeen Ismael, clinical head of Trafford Hospitals, said: “The preferred way forward for both CMFT and Trafford CCG is to ensure that all of the patients who currently access the urgent care centre will be able to continue to do so.

"The staffing arrangements will be revised to ensure that the staff can all use their clinical skills appropriately, and maintain the current levels of safety and quality.

 “The evidence shows that if we develop a model that can see and treat the current case-load, all patients should be able to be continue to come to the Trafford site for their urgent care, and therefore there should be minimal, if any, impact on neighbouring hospitals.”

Urmston ward Labour councillor Jo Harding, who is a member of the health scrutiny committee and campaign co-ordinator of the Save Trafford General community group, said: "We will be keeping a close eye on this and we will be monitoring the conditions that were set down by the Secritary of State - which are that all neighbouring A and Es would be able to cope with any extra capacity in the system.

"At the moment, I don't see any sign of that.

"I want to be absolutely sure that Trafford people have good services provided locally."

The centre treats between 500 and 600 patients per week, with more that 99 per cent of them seen and discharged or admitted within four hours.