Dear Editor,
Stroud Minor Injuries Unit has been identified as delivering excellent and timely care in a new report in the Health Service Journal. The HSJ is the ‘trade journal’ for healthcare leaders in the UK.
After more than ten years of underfunding, the NHS is currently under huge pressures, with A&E targets amongst the most visible, and hard to achieve. Under such difficult circumstances in the NHS more broadly, Stroud hospital has kept waiting times to under 1 hr 27 minutes, whilst seeing 14,243 patients.
This is really impressive. I know how hard the staff have all worked. They do a difficult job and they should be justly proud. Pressures on NHS staff are huge at this time of year.”
Stroud Hospital benefits so much from the LoF funding. Roma Walker and her team have quietly transformed the hospital environment, and continue to work closely with Stroud Maternity Unit to improve care.
The average wait time for MIU in the UK is 1 hr and 59 mins. Minor injuries units differ from Accident and Emergency. They are predominantly nurse led, usually much more local in nature but are unable to treat more serious injuries and illnesses.
The Vale Hospital also has excellent MIU services but their numbers do not warrant inclusion in the report.
I believe strongly that we need to have localism in our NHS. These figures show just how effective local units can be. We need to genuinely take back control so that patients throughout the constituency receive both timely and excellent care, delivered by the right person in the right place.
Community care, rather than distant hospital services are seen as central by the Labour Party in transforming the NHS.
Dr Simon Opher
Labour Party parliamentary candidate
