Minor Injuries Unit

It appears to be permanently closing at 4pm now, and won't accept anyone new after 3.15pm.

Unless you need it you don't realise this is a problem, but otherwise it's a trip to A&E at St Thomas, which isn't a nice place to spend 4 hours waiting for treatment for something which may be quite minor.

Has Simon Hughes taken this up as an issue yet does anyone know?

I've been amazed that there hasn't been more controversy about this 'temporary' cut in hours which began in March.

Simon seems to be in favour of replacing the MIU with a 24-hour walk-in GP service at Guy's which may not be a bad idea but is a bit surprising given his campaign to save Guy's A&E.

My guess would be that unless you need to use it it doesn't exist on your radar. The issue wasn't one for me until recently, where due to lack of insight I ran out of blood pressure tablets for several days and found myself heading to Guy's in some distress at one o'clock in the morning to be told sorry, but you have to visit St. Thomas'; given the need to remain calm and not stress oneself further this was to say the least a little bit irritating. I duly returned home, grabbed my bike and made my way there, where eventually at three o clock I was given a box of my usual from the in house pharmacy. Not the most straightforward way to return to a state of calm.

It would be a total shame to lose it - more than once I've benefited from the quick, professional treatment on offer there.

They told me they were hardly used. Maybe they couldn't justify the hours. They are good though.

I'm amazed they are hardly used, the A&E at St Thomas is always absolutely full. Perhaps they should send people who could use the minor injury unit on their internal bus to Guys, where they'd be seen sooner.

I think the problem with a GP unit is that it can't deal with minor injuries likes sprains. If you ask your doctor about them you'll generaly be told to go to A&E or Guys, and this will surely be the case with a GP unit, but the only option left would be A&E.

When you work it's very hard to access health services, which is one of the reasons the minor injury unit is so useful.

What do we think we can do about this?

It could perhaps help if it advertised its services more widely. It took some time for me to realise it even existed, but agree it would be short-sighted to lose it.

I think that when you get seen in triage at St Thomas's A&E, if they decide it's not urgent you should be reffered to Guys Minor injuries.
That would get more people using Guys MIU, and also free up time in A&E.

Papers from this month's trust board meeting say:

"Negotiations are in hand with Southwark PCT to run the MIU / UCC at Guy's. Similar discussions will be started shortly with Lambeth PCT for the UCC at St Thomas'."

MIU = minor injuries unit
UCC = urgent care centre

Not sure how that squares with the planned abolition of the PCTs.

I'm so glad to see the Green Party are raising this, it's disgraceful it's continued to have such short hours, when Cameron keeps saing the NHS isn't having cuts.

Are you going to make the FOI request James?