The best and worst of... Small market town... Big issues...
(And no that is not the real council's crest, this one even has 3 roast chickens on it)
The best and worst of... Small market town... Big issues...
(And no that is not the real council's crest, this one even has 3 roast chickens on it)
16th MARCH 2025
At a recent Town Council meeting in an update to Town Councillors something was mentioned that has now featured in back to back front pages in the Ross Gazette… sorry, is that a confusing sentence it? Sounds like a page collation error as a result of a paper jam. No, just for two weeks running one story has dominated '.
The 5th March 2025 headline was the “Minor injury unit could reopen” and a week later the headline on 12th March 2025 read “Cross-party support to reopen minor injury unit”. Both articles referred to this seemingly noble pursuit, with local Councillor Ed O’Driscoll featured heavily.
In the second edition, of which avid collectors might find a copy still on the shelves IF they are quick, the plucky councillor had his face on the front of the paper - in the online version it said that photo of him was ‘submitted’ - maybe he supplied it? Similar mention of the MIU also saw his handsome portrait on the front of the Hereford Times on 5th March 2025, tempting readers to turn to Page 3 to see more - but worried it might be a Page 3 like The Sun would have had in the 1980s, researchers decided it simply wasn’t worth the risk of turning the page.
Anyway, enough about the Town and County Councillor who seems to be positioning himself centrally to the story, what’s going on with this Minor Injury Unit (MIU)?
Let’s get one thing straight, we all love hospitals, we all love the NHS, we all appreciate and treasure the local services we have - so it’s an emotive topic to pick and so vividly attach a political party to - but maybe that’s the point.
What’s the real possibility of the MIU reopening though? Let’s re-dress the septics / address the sceptics.
First, let’s look at the term ‘minor injury’, and let's look it up as the two word phrase that it is, not as separate words because otherwise you might automatically think an MIU is some kind of A&E for accident-prone toddlers.
Google, which now offers an AI-Overview for whatever you type in, defines an MIU as “a walk-in clinic service, often found in hospitals, where you can receive treatment for minor injuries and illnesses, staffed by emergency nurse practitioners, without needing an appointment.”
See, what on earth is all this fear of AI? If the machines are going to take over the world, turn against us as systematically kill us all, then why would they think offering us descriptions in Google is a good place to start? If you were a computer with such a hell-bent agenda, surely you’d be more focussed on coming up with simple projects like: Step-A: trying to strap a nailgun to those amazingly creepy robots from Boston Dynamics (if you havent seen them, here’s a clip!), and Step-B: trying to work out how to get yourself a firearms certificate.
So now we know what one is, is the re-opening of an MIU unit in Ross-on-Wye realistic?
Well, lord knows, but many people in-the-know say it just wasn’t viable before to keep it open, simply from a staffing perspective - so why would it be now? Councillors can’t seem to sort out a couple of dozen of the worst potholes around the town, let alone a piece of significant provision such as an MIU?
Ok, back-of-a-cigarette packet time… let’s say you need three permanent staff, and in Ross on a weekend they deal with say 5 cases, but the same three staff if based in Hereford can deal with say 60 cases, including those coming from little old Ross. What would you do? …there is a long list of things which Hereford already has sorted out, but Ross would have to start again with, and this is before you consider all sorts of huge costs.
Many people say it won’t happen, and many have more a damn-sight more common sense than Common Sense Ken (who we hope will be making a return soon).
Popping back to that word ‘emotive’. Perhaps it’s more about attracting political support and attention, maybe even hoping at some point it can be used to attract your votes? If not, why shout about it so much?
Could the more cynical worry that Ross could be seeing a liberal pinch of political posturing and pontification?
Could members of the public be drawn in on face-value alone? Well, yes, if you’re sat in Tudorville and you read about it on a cold Wednesday in the local rag and you know that Doris, your nan, has recently gone to Hereford for some A&E, you could be passionate about the prospect of an MIU couldn't you? Regardless of the sheer lack of detail or chances of it happening?
Could the public be played like a piano? Naaa, probably not - but if YOU were planning political success on a whiteboard what would you do to attract support? Mwah, haa ha ha haaaaa! Okay, that’s all sounds a bit Dr Evil from the Austin Powers films, so it’s probably far from reality.
Let’s face it though, nothing in the two Ross Gazette articles says anything of real substance has happened. FWIW have the ICB or the WVT been consulted, or would that seem a PITA if you just want to get on with politicking, depending on your POV? Well that's TBD and other acronyms. A motion has been passed, but many of us do that every morning - no seriously, let’s just wait until we see some proper meat on the bones hey?
One last bit to indulge the cynics and conspiracy nuts - what if the MIU plan failed? What if it always was going to fail? Maybe in future you could wheel out that the failure is not your fault but the fault of all the people that failed to support it? - EVEN if the idea was never going to happen, and EVEN if you knew that from the start? Don't be silly! ...but it will be easy to see what happens, and the good news? All you need is a heavily-modified Delorean to jump forward a year or two to find out.
Do YOU think the MIU will really reopen?
Lots of highly-informed people in Ross are in the know.
People high up in Herefordshire Council and the NHS locally will definitely know the reality.
Soon, we’ll come back with some more reading and statistics on the matter, that you can take a look at - so pop back!
THE END.
(To be continued…)
Oh hang on... just like Marvel Films there's a bit at the end of the credits!!!
What was the last time we saw politics and healthcare mix so vividly here in Ross?
Many people in Ross with their finger on the pulse will remember a few years back where it at least seemed there was a strategy to attract votes based on the very questionable premise that Ross Hospital might be likely to shut. Was it going to? Was it ever at risk? Was this a thing? Ask around.
Please pick up your popcorn packets on the way out, but seeing as the subjects of Dr Evil and money have come up - don’t miss this classic clip of the bald-headed buffoon hatching his plans, including one to raise “one million dollars!”.