Reader's letter

Reopen Herefordshire MIUs to cut A&E waiting times

Chiefs must reverse this absurd decision <i>(Image: Hereford Times)</i>
Chiefs must reverse this absurd decision (Image: Hereford Times)
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HEREFORDSHIRE needs its minor injuries units back (Fight to reopen minor injury units, March 6).

Anyone who has had to spend any time in the accident and emergency department in Hereford will be all too aware that a visit there can result in waiting hours to be seen.

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It’s a similar picture up and down the country, with hardworking NHS staff simply overwhelmed by the number of patients.

This is not helped, in places like Herefordshire, by an ageing population, meaning that beds are often blocked by people well enough to leave hospital but not well enough to be at home alone without some sort of care or assistance.


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I avoid the hospital at all costs, but there have been two occasions in the last few years where I have needed to go to accident and emergency. On neither of these occasions was I dying, but they were also issues that I couldn’t treat and that a GP wouldn’t treat. On both these occasions, I ended up waiting for hours in the department for something that could easily have been dealt with by a minor injuries unit.

I felt like a fraud being there, but there was nowhere else I could go. I wonder how many people sitting in the waiting room right now could be equally well cared for by a minor injuries unit rather than the emergency department?

It was short-sighted to close them in the first place. Keeping them closed is absurd.

RACHAEL JONES

Leominster

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