We are coming up to a bank holiday weekend and I would like to encourage you to ‘Think which service?’ to ensure that you get the right help at the right time should you need any health care.

Our Emergency Departments (EDs) are extremely busy but even more so during bank holidays, so it is important to know which local health service to use and when.

EDs are for genuinely life-threatening emergencies, for example chest pains or severe bleeding or burns. If you have a life-threatening illness or injury, please continue to dial 999.

If you have an urgent but not life-threatening medical need over the bank holiday, please visit www.111.nhs.uk. NHS 111 online is available to signpost people to the best option for their care needs – it can provide the most appropriate local treatment option for medical issues, saving an unnecessary trip to ED.

You can also consider visiting your local Minor Injury Unit in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Oswestry or Whitchurch. These can provide rapid treatment for injuries and illnesses that don’t require emergency hospital care.

For further information about Think Which Service, which aims to help you to know where to go to get the right advice, support and treatment for your health needs as quickly as possible, visit: http://thinkwhichservice.co.uk/

It is Research, Innovation and Improvement Week (20-24 May) and at our Trust we are recognising how research and innovation plays such a crucial role in healthcare.

Research and innovation can make a real difference to how we care for and treat our patients and in the last 12 months more than 2,033 patients have taken part in 56 research studies at the Trust.

It is exciting to see the various studies taking place and one of these trials is Aphrodite, which looks to eliminate early rectal cancer by looking at radiotherapy dosages.

Aphrodite opened at the Trust in September 2023 and has recruited three participants so far.

To find out more about research at SaTH, click visit our website: https://www.sath.nhs.uk/about-us/research/

Work is progressing at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital building as part of the Hospitals Transformation Programme (HTP) and we will be holding another neighbours’ drop-in session for those living close to the site on Tuesday 4 June, from 4pm to 6pm at the Shropshire Education Conference Centre which is at our Royal Shrewsbury Hospital site.

This will give neighbours the opportunity to ask questions and find out the latest relating to HTP and other projects on the site.

Alongside this, the team is continuing community roadshows across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and mid Wales, where you can find out more about the programme.

This week the roadshow is at Wellington Market on Thursday between 10am and 2pm. More details of upcoming roadshow dates can be found on the website.