Minor injuries

Please check the NHSquicker app for live opening times.

If you need urgent treatment, but your condition not life threatening, please use your local minor injuries unit (MIU) or walk-in centre (WIC), where you will be seen by highly-qualified practitioners.

This will ensure you receive the best possible treatment, leaving the emergency departments (ED) free to deal with more serious cases. You do not need to pre-book an appointment, just walk-in during our opening hours which can be found using the links below:

The below minor injury services do not accept walk-in patients. Please call the service before attending to book in or use NHS 111. You may be directed to an alternative service to ensure you get appropriate treatment for your needs.

Other minor injury urgent treatment services across North and East Devon (please note these services are not managed by Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust):

Please note: these services are not suitable for children under two years old.

What we can treat

MIUs and WICs can assess, diagnose and provide treatment for medical problems that are not critical or life threatening, including:

  • Cuts and minor wounds
  • Eye infections
  • Minor burns
  • Minor eye injuries
  • Minor head injuries
  • Minor skin infections
  • Muscle or joint injuries
  • Sprains or strains

MIUs are also able to help with minor fractures.

This is not a full list of conditions. If in any doubt, use NHS 111 to be directed to an appropriate service.

When you should go to ED

Our emergency departments are here to help if you are suffering from a critical or life-threatening condition, including:

  • Baby or child under two years old with a rash or temperature
  • Breathing difficulties
  • Chest pain
  • Severe bleeding
  • Stroke symptoms

This is not a full list of conditions. In a medical emergency, when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk, you should always call 999 or attend an emergency department.

Devon ICB review of minor injury and urgent care provision

Devon ICB Board would like to acknowledge that a review of minor injury and urgent care provision across Devon is a priority for the Integrated Care Board. This work will continue to take place during 2026/27 and forms part of our wider programme to strengthen access to urgent care services for local populations.

This review is being undertaken in the context of national expectations from NHS England, following a clear direction for the development of Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs), with the expectation that Minor Injury Units (MIUs) and Walk-in Centres (WiCs) are reviewed and, where appropriate, redesigned to align with the UTC model.

National UTC principles and standards define the core service offer required for a service to be designated as a UTC, including minimum opening hours, scope of conditions treated, workforce competencies, access to diagnostics, governance arrangements, and integration with wider urgent and emergency care pathways. These standards are a requirement that all ICBs locally deliver and are intended to reduce fragmentation in urgent care, improve consistency of access, and make it easier for the public to understand where to go for urgent but non-emergency care.

These standards include providing a service which

  • open’s seven days a week and 12 hours a day as a minimum
  • offers both booked and walk-in appointments, seeing both minor injuries and ailments
  • has a named senior clinical leader, supported by an appropriate multi-disciplinary workforce
  • has a basic consistent investigative and diagnostic offering on site and can accept appropriate ambulance conveyances.

Full details can be read online at NHS England » Urgent treatment centres – principles and standards.

At the same time, while there is a national requirement, redesignation and service changes must be delivered locally with Integrated Care Boards responsible for planning, commissioning, and assuring urgent care services can respond to local population need, geography, demand, workforce availability, estate capacity, and the wider system of urgent and emergency care. This ensures that services are safe, sustainable, and accessible.

For this reason, the review will not look at MIUs in isolation as we will consider urgent care provision as a whole — including primary care, community pharmacy, minor injury units, UTCs, NHS 111, ambulance services, and emergency departments — alongside our emerging commitment to neighbourhood health. The aim is to ensure improved access and delivery of care close to home, joined up across services, and responsive to the specific needs of communities across Devon and Cornwall.

As the review is still ongoing, timelines and public engagement arrangements have not yet been finalised. The Board is clear, however, that appropriate engagement with local communities and stakeholders will be an important part of any future proposals, and this will be undertaken in line with our statutory duties. We recognise the need to improve communication on this matter and are committed to keeping the public informed as the programme develops.

The review will include an analysis of all MIU attendances across the full seven days of services, acknowledging that temporary closures will affect the numbers of users, along with the data for alternative treatment received at emergency departments, GP practices and/or a pharmacy. It will be supported by a detailed equality and quality impact assessment (EQIA) that will determine impacts from right across the system, including local data on needs assessment, deprivation, transport, etc, and will support any decision-making about the location for future services.

NHS Devon will not make any decision about next steps until it has concluded its review and there are no current proposals for any changes.

This work is also being supported and aligned with our approach to Neighbourhood health delivery, which is defined nationally in the NHS 10 Year Plan, and more locally in our Devon strategy for health and care.