I WRITE in response to the article ‘Anger at plan to close hospital unit at night’.

Once again there is the picture of the usual Stroud Objectors to accompany the article.

While I believe that Stroud has a strong and valuable tradition of standing up against injustice and unfairness, I cannot agree that the objections to the proposed closure are sensible or based on reason.

Cllr Lesley Williams, for example, is quoted as saying that providing the overnight service could be ‘a matter of life or death’.

This shows a dramatic misunderstanding of the proposals and of the work of the unit – it is a service for the treatment of minor injuries.

Any matter of life or death would be dealt with by our emergency services.

It makes no sense, in a time of financial difficulty, to maintain a service that is woefully underused and that cannot be adequately staffed.

Mike Roberts, medical services director at Gloucestershire Care Services – who is also a GP – makes the point that many patients who use the MIU night-time services could either have gone to A&E or waited until the morning to use the service.

It is not wrong to target resources where the need is greatest.

It is a waste of time and energy to protest against this closure – this is not an issue worthy of a fight.

Objectors who do not choose their battles carefully risk losing credibility.

Kathryn Toms

Stroud

READING about protests against the night-closure of the Minor Injuries Unit at Stroud Hospital (SNJ, July 13), I find it curious that intelligent and thoughtful people like some of our more prominent local councillors seem to think it reasonable that two qualified nurses should sit up all night on the off-chance that one or two patients might turn up.

(Average of 4.5 patients from 11pm to 8am between Cirencester and Stroud.) Cllr Lesley Williams, as quoted in your paper, seems to think that minor injuries “could be a matter of life or death”.

Minor injuries are, by definition, not life threatening, so I would imagine that in most cases such an injury could wait until morning.

Otherwise, genuine life or death cases are, of course, catered for by the ambulance service.

Those in doubt can always ring their GP’s out of hours service or the NHS helpline.

So I suggest that we get this into perspective and let our nurses spend their nights with their families and their days being really useful.

Andrew Beard

Stroud