Summary:
Patients were told to go to an Asda supermarket for medical treatment after two minor injuries units were closed due to staff shortages, it has emerged.

Full article:
Hospitals were so busy last winter that staff advised patients to go to a supermarket for urgent medical treatment. They were directed to an Asda-based walk-in centre in Hereford when staff shortages forced two minor injury units to shut. The centres, in Leominster and Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, were closed after their nurses were drafted in to help at the A&E department in Hereford. Patients needing urgent medical care were told to go to an Asda-based walk-in centre in Hereford after two local minor injuries centres were closed due to staff shortages (file picture) Posters detailing alternative NHS services – including the Asda-based NHS walk-in centre – were put on the doors of the two units. Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the incident showed the NHS was in 'crisis' Last night Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: ‘It’s clear the NHS is in crisis when it tells injured patients to go to Asda, not A&E.’ The incident, which took place in January, came to light after Freedom of Information requests about serious problems faced by hospitals last winter. A spokesman for Wye Valley NHS Trust said shutting the minor injury units temporarily had been an efficient use of staff in the circumstances. He added: ‘It’s not the Asda shop we are talking about – the NHS walk-in centre is just in the Asda building.’