A MAN has called for equipment such as surgical staplers to be stocked at the Malton Urgent Care Centre, after he was referred to York with a head wound.

Vic Voller, who lives in Malton, said he had sustained the "seriously bad" head wound at midday on a Saturday.

"Holding two tea towels to my wound, a friend took me to our local minor injuries unit," he said, adding that the staff decided it needed to be treated with six surgical staples.

However, the issue arose when the Saturday staff could not locate a stapler in the building, despite, Mr Voller said, phoning Scarborough hospital to ask where it was.

Mr Voller said he was then due to be taken to Scarborough Hospital in an ambulance, but ended up being taken to York instead.

"Three and a half hours after my midday misfortune, I arrived in York," he said. He was fast-tracked through A&E and his wound was treated with staples. York staff then arranged transport back to Malton with a volunteer taxi service.

Mr Voller said that costs could be lowered by having treatments such as this delivered at Malton, but added: "I'm proud of our NHS. The frontline workers are worth more than all the monies available to this wonderful service."

John Harrison, CEO of the Vocare Group, who provide outsourced healthcare at Malton, said: "Malton Urgent Care Centre (UCC) provides care for minor injury and minor illness presentations.

"We do not have full accident and emergency equipment or indeed specialist services on site as this is not what we are commissioned to provide and we are based in a small community hospital," he said.

"In this case, the most appropriate course of action was to refer the patient for treatment."

However, Mr Harrison added: "We are constantly striving to improve the quality of service we offer to patients and we have in place an ongoing improvement programme which includes regular reviews of the equipment we stock which we match with patient needs in the local areas we serve.

"As part of this we also have an ongoing training programme for staff and this includes upskilling them to use new equipment where necessary.

"As part of this process we will certainly take into account this recent issue and consider if we need to stock additional equipment onsite."