02/04/2026
Just under ten years ago, on 27 July 2016, I read a BBC News article reporting that the Cambs & Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (then the body responsible for planning and commissioning health care services in the local - Ely, Cambs - area) were considering ending the local urgent care service provided by the Minor Injuries Unit at the Princess of Wales Hospital. The prospect of this happening shocked me, for I appreciated how critically important and keenly valued the MIU was to local residents and visitors, and how it reduced the strain on the A&E department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, and other hospitals in the area; and at a time when Ely’s anticipated population growth required increased local healthcare service provision. I knew I wasn’t alone in my concern.
I immediately launched a petition*, to raise awareness and channel community support, making it clear to the CCG how greatly valued the MIU is by us all, and urging them to retain and increase investment in this service provision. I created this Facebook Community page, to further raise awareness and community support, and attended the next City Council meeting, after which my former Religious Education teacher, Helen Wright, and Councillor Lis Every joined the campaign. Contemporaneously, Spotted in Ely launched a very effective video clip campaign in which supporters of the MIU held up notices highlighting the breadth of illnesses and injuries treated by MIU staff. East Cambs District Councillor Anna Bailey and our then MP, Lucy Frazer KC, also championed the MIU.
The CCG called a number of public meetings, as community support for the campaign continued to swell, and our collective voice was heard. Lobbying hard, I was invited by the CCG to serve as Patient Representative on the Steering Group for the MIU, attending monthly meetings until the start of Covid lockdowns. Ely Markets generously invited us to man the charity stall for a number of weeks, enabling us to collect many more signatures for the petition there which we collated with those provided in a number of local shops and other community venues. Every individual who supported our campaign made a difference. We can be proud of our collective achievement, as Ely MIU continues to provide timely local assessment and treatment of non-critical injuries and illnesses at the Princess of Wales Hospital, alongside a growing number of diagnostic, outpatient and specialist services.
Over time, I have continued to update this Community page on a (usually!) daily basis, sharing health, wellbeing and social care posts; Covid-related information through the lockdowns; reported advances in medical treatments and medicines; uplifting verse and photographic posts; various posts relating to public health and the Emergency Services; community-related information; and often with a sprinkling of humour. It is my firm belief that everyone matters, and that there is power in community and speaking up in support of the common good.
I believe that now is the right time for me to ‘retire’ from running this Community page, and I am confident that, should there ever be a need for our community to rally again in support of the MIU or any other important community provision, many will step forward to do so.
Thank you to all those who have followed and supported the Save Ely’s Minor Injuries Unit page over the years; to those who continue to provide essential, local urgent care at Ely MIU, and in the wider NHS and related services; and to the many who have needed to make use of it.
With my very best wishes to you for good health, peace and wellbeing,
Emma
*Petition to CCG, on Change.org: https://c.org/zbStYXK4tJ (now closed)
Save Ely's Minor Injuries Unit! Leaked report states it could be closed.
