Future of urgent treatment centre still unclear
BBCUrgent treatment services for patients in Rugby should be upgraded, an MP has reiterated.
MP for Rugby John Slinger is continuing to campaign for a doctor-led urgent treatment centre at the Hospital of St Cross, which currently has a nurse-led centre for minor injuries after emergency services were stopped there in 1997.
He said NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) was conducting a review of urgent treatment in the area, but this had not yet concluded.
The BBC has contacted the ICB to ask when it expects to finalise the review, and for further comment.
Slinger described the current nurse-led urgent treatment centre as "brilliant" but called for an upgrade to the site's current urgent care provision.
He said he had repeatedly raised the issue with the CEO of the ICB and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) Trust, which runs the hospital.
The Labour MP told the BBC he was as "frustrated and concerned as his constituents".
"I've been told that a review is under way, he said. "I've not been given a clear end date to that review.
"I've been in touch just this week again with the ICB to ask them specifically when does this review conclude and to reiterate my strong view that urgent treatment needs to be upgraded at St Cross Hospital and enhanced to include doctor-led provision," he explained.
A multimillion-pound development of the hospital, including four new theatres, was approved in February 2025.
The plans will also see two 24-bed wards and 12 recovery bays built at the site, but proposals do not include an A&E department, with most patients that require emergency treatment taken to University Hospital Coventry by ambulance.
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