Services at Cromer Hospital

Services at Cromer Hospital

Minor Injuries Unit

Cromer Hospital has a long history of providing accident care to its local population and visitors alike, dating as far back to the late 1800s. In the present day, Cromer Minor Injuries Unit is run by Emergency Nurse Practitioners (ENPs), who are experienced nurses and have undergone specific training to assess and treat all forms of minor injury.

These injuries include minor head injuries and minor burns to simple wounds, eye conditions and simple fractures. The team is supported by the x-ray department and computer links to the N&N which allow images to be visualised by senior doctors.

As a nurse-led unit, Cromer MIU sees more than 13,000 patients per year and demand increases when the north Norfolk holiday makers visit the coast in the summer months.

Radiology

The radiology services offered at Cromer Hospital include referrals for GP appointments, MRI scanning, bone density scans (DXA), breast screening, ultrasound, a walk-in same day chest x-ray from GP referrals, outpatient clinics to include trauma and orthopaedics and trauma, rheumatology, respiratory and pain relief imaging in theatre.

The x-ray department supports the Minor Injuries Unit 08.00-19.45 seven days a week with some additional weekend GP appointments too.  There is a small core team of Cromer radiology staff, who are supported by other staff rotating from NNUH, totalling around 12 radiology staff onsite per day. The MRI scanner sees around 28 patients a day.

The Muriel Thoms Procedure Unit

The Muriel Thoms Procedure Unit is used by patients undergoing minor surgery in the high specification room. These operating sessions include: day case gynaecology,dermatology, pain management, orthopaedic, local anaesthetic plastic surgery and flexible cystoscopy. It includes six treatment areas where patients can undergo medical treatment such as blood transfusions and bladder chemotherapy.

The unit sees approximately 30 patients per day and the team is made up of 12 full and part time staff. The unit is open five days a week.

Dialysis Unit

The Cromer Dialysis Unit treats patients requiring haemodialysis and haemodiafiltration from the
north Norfolk area. It is a nurse-led unit and is made up of 14 dedicated staff who provide care to 25 patients per day, with those patients attending for dialysis three times per week.

As a small unit, the team works hard to fundraise and promote community awareness of renal failure and organ donation needs. In addition, their fundraising efforts have also provided social support for
patients too, such as theatre trips to Norwich and a holiday to Bournemouth in September 2016.

Outpatients Department

The Outpatients department at Cromer Hospital offers a wide range of services to the local north Norfolk community.  The team oversees patient appointments covering many medical specialities including:  dermatology, ENT, orthopaedics and the Urology One-Stop clinic. They also offer a phlebotomy service and nurse-led pre-assessment clinics too.

In addition to these, the Cromer Hospital Audiology team has outpatient appointments where patients can get hearing tests, hearing aids and, by appointment and request hearing aid repairs.

Ophthalmology Unit

Cromer Ophthalmology is a busy department and provides care for a large variety of eye conditions which include: cataracts, glaucoma, retinal and vitreoretinal conditions, age related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, corneal problems, ocular plastics and paediatric eye
conditions.

The team is made up of 27 clinical and non-clinical staff, including nurses, nursing assistants and receptionists. In addition to this, consultants, orthoptists and medical photographers visit Cromer each week to see patients in north Norfolk. On average, the department operates on 180 cataracts per month, gives 160 injections for AMD and Diabetic Macular Oedema (DMO) per month and perform approximately eight ocular plastic cases per month. Eye Clinics run every day for all specialities and the team see an average of 880 patients per month.