The Minor Injury Unit at Ross Community Hospital will reopen this Thursday, January 30th, Wye Valley NHS Trust has announced.

The decision was taken to temporarily close the units on January 6th so staff could be redeployed to the County Hospital, which was experiencing a substantial demand on its services.

Many residents feared that the temporary closure could become permanent. The Mayor of Ross, Councillor Chris Bartrum and Jill Davies, Chairman of the Friends of Ross Hospital sent a letter to the Ross Gazette asking readers to contact the Trust to make it clear that "that we want to keep our Minor Injuries Unit and that we demand that the service is reinstated as soon as possible."

Members of Ross-on-Wye and District Civic Society also wrote to the Trust regarding the temporary closure of the MIU.

They said:?"We also deplore the manner of the closure, which was with no warning to anyone, and announced by a notice on the door. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this was done in order to avoid prior public discussion. We ask you to restore the service without delay."

Derek Smith, WVT Chief Executive said:?"This was not a decision we took lightly, but it was essential that we deployed experienced and skilled staff where there was a high level of demand from acutely ill patients.

"We stated that we would re-open our MIUs as soon as we could, and that's exactly what we're doing," he added.

For more stories in full please see this week's Ross Gazette.