Minor Injury Unit - Prince Philip Hospital

The Minor Injury Unit provides care to adults and children over 12-months old with minor injuries such as minor wounds, minor burns or scalds, minor limb injuries, bites and stings, foreign bodies in the ear or nose, and minor eye injuries. From Friday 1 November 2024, for a period of six months, the Minor Injury Unit at Prince Philip Hospital will be open from 8am until 8pm, seven days a week.
The temporary change to opening hours, which only affects the Minor Injury Unit, has been put in place to protect patient and staff safety due to not having the appropriate Minor Injury Unit GPs in place during evenings and overnight.
During the past year (1 October 2023 – 30 September 2024), approximately 31,000 patients used the Minor Injury Unit at Prince Philip Hospital, with around 25,000 daytime presentations and 6,000 evening presentations.
There have been problems in securing suitably qualified doctors to provide cover in the unit. For example, in the five-month period between February 2024 and July 2024, there were 42 uncovered slots, of which 23 were overnight and 16 were afternoon/evening slots.
The hospital’s Acute Medical Assessment Unit, which provides emergency care for very sick medical patients, such as those who have suffered a stroke or heart attack, remains a 24/7 service at Prince Philip Hospital and is not part of this temporary change. Patients are brought into this unit directly by the ambulance service, or are referred by their GP, or by the Out-of-Hours service.
The local Out-of-Hours service will continue to operate from the Llanelli Hospital and is accessed by calling NHS 111 Wales when your GP surgery is not open (between 6.30pn and 8am Monday to Friday, weekends and Bank Holidays). Patients are only seen through arrangement with NHS 111 Wales as this is not a ‘walk-in’ service.