Plan to Reduce Hours at Central Middlesex Urgent Treatment Centre
Trust is proposing to close facility earlier in the evening
Central Middlesex Hospital. Picture: LNWH
October 14, 2025
A proposal is being made to reducing the opening hours at the urgent treatment centre (UTC) at Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Roya. London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH), which runs the facility, says it is planning the change due to low attendance after 9p and is asking people to share their views.
Currently, the UTC opens between 8am and 12midnight, seven days per week, with the last patient registered at 11pm. It treats minor injuries and illnesses only and sees an average of four patients an hour after 9pm. The Trust has found that many of these patients would be more appropriately seen by their GP or at a pharmacy.
Radiology services (X-ray, ultrasound, etc) at Central Middlesex Hospital are not available after 8pm. This means some patients who attend after this time must visit another centre that evening or return for care the following day. Given such low patient numbers and their reasons for attendance, the Trust argues that allocating staff to radiology services after 8pm is not an efficient use of its limited staff resources.
LNWH is therefore proposing new opening times of 8am to 9pm, with the last patient registered at 8pm. The centre would remain open seven days a week and continue to care for around 132 patients per day, even with a slight reduction to opening hours. As now, a 24/7 critical outreach team would be on-hand to look after seriously unwell patients until they can be transferred to a more appropriate setting.
Chief Executive, Pippa Nightingale, said, “We want to understand how a change in opening hours might affect patients, their families, or the people they care for. So, we’re holding two in-person public involvement events to hear people’s views.”
The first of these is on Thursday 23 October at 6pm and the second is on Friday 31 October at 12pm. Both events are at Central Middlesex Hospital. People can find out more and register their attendance through the Trust’s website – www.lnwh.nhs/UTC
People can also share their views on the proposal by completing an online questionnaire .
A final decision on opening hours will be made later in the year.
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