SO few people used Darwen’s weekend minor injuries unit that costs were running at more than £250 per patient, health bosses said.

But the handful of people using it each weekend, despite a lack of publicity about the scheme, shows the facility is needed in the town, according to a health watchdog campaigning for it to be reopened.

Figures obtained by Councillor Roy Davies show that up to seven people per day used the unit, opened at Darwen Health Centre in December to help ease winter pressures on the Royal Blackburn Hospital’s urgent care centre.

However, on some days only one person used the service, to deal with minor wounds at weekends, and it closed at the end of March.

Councillor Davies said: “I am working with the primary care trust to try to get this back up and running. A local service for minor cases is exactly what is needed. I’m amazed so many people did use it seeing as no-one seemed to know it was there.”

NHS Blackburn with Darwen admitted in a letter to Coun Davies that the promotion of the scheme had a “very limited timescale”, but said leaflets had been delivered to all Darwen homes, a radio interview about the unit had been given and newspaper adverts placed.

IIn the letter Judith Griffin, chief executive of the trust, said: “If you divided the £42,000 cost of running the Darwen Pilot by the number of patients attending then the cost per visit would be roughly £259 based upon the throughput.

“The uptake in activity would need to increase some 450% to represent parity on cost terms with the national tariff at the urgent care centre.”

She said the pilot had been set up with leftover cash from the last financial year, and all promotional material had clearly stated it would end on March 29.

Coun Davies said: “I’m sure the PCT did work to promote this, but the fact is you have to tell people again and again or the message won’t sink in.

“There were even people working in the health centre itself who hadn’t known it existed. I will continue to push for its reinstatement because facilities like this are exactly within the ethos of Meeting Patients’ Needs.”