24 March 2021

Urgent Care will return to the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford on Monday (29 March 2021). 

The Urgent Treatment Centre at PRH was temporarily relocated to Bridgnorth Minor Injury Unit (MIU) as part of Shropshire’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the number of COVID-positive patients at Shropshire’s acute hospitals continuing to fall, the Urgent Treatment Centre will now return to PRH. Urgent Care returned to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) from Whitchurch MIU in October last year.

Following the move, anyone experiencing minor illness will no longer be able to receive treatment at Bridgnorth and will need to attend the Urgent Treatment Centres at RSH or PRH.

While the Urgent Treatment Centre will be returning to PRH, the MIU at Bridgnorth can still treat are range of minor injuries such as bites, cuts and lacerations, foreign bodies in the eyes, nose and ears, fractures that require plaster only, minor burns and scalds, minor head injuries (with no loss of consciousness), soft tissue injuries such as sprains and bruises, and wound infections.

People with major injuries and illnesses, such as head injuries and breathing difficulties should still attend A&E.

If it’s not an emergency but you need urgent medical advice, use NHS 111.

Dr Arne Rose, Medical Director at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs RSH and PRH, said: “Cases of coronavirus continue to fall in our hospitals, so we are now in a position to be able to bring urgent care back to PRH.

“I would like to thank our colleagues from Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust and Bridgnorth MIU for all of their help over the last 12 months and for making our teams so welcome.”

Phil Atkins, Clinical Lead for the Minor Injuries Units at Shropshire Community Health, said: “We were delighted to be able to support our colleagues from SaTH by hosting the Urgent Care Centre at Bridgnorth over the last year.

“The teams have been able to work well together to deliver an excellent service for patients, but now is the right time for it to return to Telford.”

Patients with coronavirus symptoms should follow the government advice by staying at home and using the NHS 111 online coronavirus service to find out what to do.

Anyone requiring medical assistance outside of the opening hours of the two UTCs or the county’s MIUs should call NHS 111 or, in an emergency, 999.