A local health campaign group has described the temporary closure of the Minor Injuries Unit at Leek Moorlands Hospital as "unacceptable".

Nub News reported recently how services have been temporarily suspended at Leek Moorlands Hospital's Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) after too many staff were off work due to Covid.

The Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust made the announcement on Monday 21st March, and said the decision will be reviewed in a week's time, on Monday 28th.

Residents have now instead been asked to travel to the walk-in centre at Haywood Hospital in Burslem.

In a statement released yesterday, the Leek Health Campaign Group, who campaigned for the MIU's reopening after it was closed for over a year from March 2020 - June 2021, called this latest temporary closure "an abuse of the Moorlands community".

Read their statement in full below:

"The move to close Leek's Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) is unacceptable – it is an abuse of the Moorlands community. The MIU meets the needs of more than 1,000 sick and injured patients a month needing urgent care. This is a vital local service - serving a 220 square mile rural area, and some distance from the urban area of Stoke-on-Trent.

"Leek is some 11 miles from the Haywood hospital. Travel by public transport via two buses, and waiting in Leek and Hanley, or taxi at £20 each way - and on top of that the additional pain and suffering a protracted journey imposes - cannot be realistically proposed by the Midlands Partnership Trust (MPFT).

"And closure must be questionable - given that figures show Leek MIU is far more intensively used per 1,000 population that the Haywood Walk in Centre. And MPFT has acknowledged Leek plays a valuable role in taking pressure off the Haywood Centre. With pressure on nursing staff - it makes no sense to close Leek MIU when shortage could more effectively accommodated at the Haywood Centre.

"We question the management of the urgent care services, and call on the Hospital Trust to urgently review the role of the Leek MIU and to reopen the facility next week as a priority.

"The Moorlands Community deserves better from our local health provider and health commissioner. The Moorlands Community awaits your urgent response."