St Mark’s Hospital is ‘important’, but no word on minor injuries

The matter of St Mark’s Hospital – about which residents have been awaiting news for some time - was raised at a meeting of Frimley Health Trust on Wednesday.

As well as providing an update on Heatherwood Hospital, apologising for patient waiting times and highlighting some of the struggles the hospital trust is facing, the Frimley Health Annual Members’ Meeting touched on St Mark’s, following a question from a Royal Borough councillor.

Cllr Donna Stimson (Con, St Mary’s) raised the topic of the hospital, echoing perennial concerns by residents over its status. Cllr Stimson did not make explicit mention of its much-missed minor injuries unit.

The unit closed ‘temporarily’ in April 2020. Several members of NHS staff were redeployed to temporary roles forming part of the response to the COVID-19 crisis.

In October last year, East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (which merged with other services into Frimley CCG in April 2021) said the permanent closure of the unit was ‘not being considered’.

The last update on St Marks was in January of this year. A spokesman for Frimley said that surges in COVID cases had caused challenges in workforce availability, meaning the unit would remain shut for now.