Hexham Hospital's overnight urgent care service will shut once again, less than a month after reopening.
From Friday, November 2 the urgent care unit at the Hexham General Hospital will not be operational between 10pm and 8am each day "until further notice".
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust say the decision will only affect "a small number of people" saying the service is used by, on average, two people a night.
However, trust bosses acknowledged the decision could cause anger and disappointment for the community in Hexham.
The service was initially closed due to "staffing pressures" in July, on a trial basis. It reopened in October, but the trust says it has faced "severe workforce challenges" and now has no choice but to shut the doors overnight once again.
Marion Dickson, chief operating officer for surgery, clinical support and child health at the trust, said: "We would like to reassure the public that over the last three weeks we have done everything we can to run a safe and consistent urgent care service at Hexham overnight.
"Time and time again our staff have gone above and beyond to help us do this, and overcome the severe staffing pressures we face, and we would like to thank them all for their efforts.
"Despite our best efforts, it has now come to the stage where we have exhausted all possibilities and must, reluctantly, make this difficult decision.
"We fully understand that the local community will be disappointed – even angry –however, we must not, and will not, compromise on patient safety. We pride ourselves in providing the highest standards of care to our patients and running a safe service overnight is, at present, not an option.
"Our priority must always be to run services where there is most demand from patients and we simply do not have the staff to operate a service overnight while keeping it going during the day to cater for the thousands of people who attend between 8am and 10pm.
"We would like to apologise to the public for any inconvenience and the recent inconsistency in our service and would urge people to make use of NHS 111 should they need urgent medical advice overnight."
The trust says it is "discussing options" for this service with the NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group and will update the public "as soon as it is in a position to do so".
The urgent care centre will continue to operate as a walk-in service as usual between 8am and 10pm. Outside of these times, people are advised to ring 111 to be referred to the most appropriate service, or 999 in an emergency.
