Councillor hits out at ongoing delays to reopen Cannock Minor Injuries Unit

The Cannock Chase Hospital-based centre closed in March 2020 to enable staff to provide support for patients needing urgent care at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital at the start of the Covid pandemic.

More than 3,000 people signed a petition calling on Staffordshire County Council to lobby for action to get it re-opened.

And in 2022 the council’s health scrutiny committee was told that health service commissioners were aiming to reopen it in June of that year.

But more than two years on from that meeting the Cannock unit remains temporarily closed according to the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust website.

Councillor Phil Hewitt, who has been campaigning for the reopening of the MIU since 2020, raised the issue once again with health bosses at a recent meeting of the Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, where urgent and emergency care was being discussed.

He said: “You talk about entering the system in different ways, but I come from Cannock Chase and we had a thriving MIU.

"It upsets me that in all of Cannock Chase we can’t enter a system where we have (a minor injuries unit).

“In this chamber I was promised it would be open and I was given a date it would be open and that really saddens me. Not only does that devalue this chamber, it devalues this scrutiny meeting.

“I had an issue where I broke my leg and ended up at the MIU in Lichfield.

"I was well treated but I have ongoing issues from that and I am still at Burton now because that’s where I was referred.

“I’m speaking for the people of Cannock Chase when I say it’s not fair and it’s not right.

"You do this report and it genuinely upsets me that you have all these ideas and not one part of it says the people of Cannock Chase can have an MIU as it’s not acceptable and it never will be as far as I’m concerned.”

Helen Slater, Associate Director of Transformation from the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB (Integrated Care Board), said: “In terms of the MIU, when it closed prior to Covid, we recognised that there were some challenges in terms of the delivery of that service.

"We recognised that certain elements of it meant that if you turned up at the MIU you still had to go to other services.

“We’ve reviewed the activity that went through there and looked at it in terms of what should be seen within primary care, what should be seen within what would be a UTC (urgent treatment centre) and what should be seen within an emergency department.

"We’ve got ongoing conversations with the primary care network and we did at one point in 2021-2022 go out for a procurement process for the Minor Injuries Unit.

“But our stumbling block on that was having the available clinic space to deliver that service.

"The clinical strategy from Royal Wolverhampton Trust is to not have an MIU or urgent treatment centre within Cannock Chase Hospital, so we went through a process of having to close that procurement process down and to look at seeking alternative estates.

“We haven’t been able to resolve that issue and that is why the service has remained temporarily closed.

"But we also need to make sure that with the UTC specification we’re putting the UTCs in the right place, and that’s why we’re still working through this process.

“We know that a large proportion of patients have gone to Samuel Johnson (Community Hospital in Lichfield), to Royal Wolverhampton, to Walsall and to County Hospital (in Stafford).

"We want to understand, through conversations with the public and other stakeholders and through the primary care network, what is the appropriate service for Cannock and the rest of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent and that is why this work is still ongoing.”

Councillor Hewitt said: “I still feel really passionate about it. It was closed pre-Covid and it’s a snail’s pace, but a snail would beat it.

“I understand you have got to look at the process but it’s far too long. How long does it take?

“We are in desperate need of an MIU. We have this report about keeping people out of A&E and ending up in Lichfield and Burton hospitals, which is not right for where we live and not acceptable.

“It’s not too far for me for now, but none of us are getting any younger.

"I would say this process needs speeding up and if you’re coming back in October, I would love an update report and maybe a positive one.”