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