The Minor Injury Unit has been busy since the opening of the new Tenby Cottage Hospital, but this was particularly true over the Easter weekend when well over 100 patients attended.

The MIU is purpose-built with its own separate entrance and is now open from 8 am to 10 pm every day of the week. It has two main treatment rooms which are spacious and well equipped, as can be seen in the photograph.

The MIU has the support of diagnostic services on site, with the X-ray department working alongside the unit. There is a team of nurses led by Sister Tina Rees who are able to deal with a wide range of injuries. The whole team has recently undertaken additional training, an Emergency Nurse Practitioner Course, which has further enhanced the skills they have available.

Sister Rees states that the nursing team is very happy to be based there. "It is lovely to work in spacious and comfortable rooms. The air conditioning is soothing for patients and staff. It is an added bonus that the patients are also so impressed."

Additional medical cover when required is provided by general practitioners from the adjacent Tenby practice which has a long history of partnership working with the Health Trust in this area.

Outside the hours of the GP practice, medical cover is now provided by the Pembrokeshire Care on Call service. This increasingly important service provides out of hours GP cover for urgent medical problems for the whole of Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. The service is also available between 6.30 pm and 8 am Monday to Friday.

The Care on Call doctors are now normally based at the TCH during opening hours and the doctors' car is frequently seen outside the MIU, as the recent photograph of Dr. Paul Crawford shows.

These doctors work with the MIU team to treat patients with minor injuries or illnesses requiring intervention from the doctor. The Care on Call doctors are very pleased with the arrangements, and as Dr. Crawford stated, "The facilities here are excellent."

The MIU nurses continue to provide the same high standards of care that they have provided in the old hospital for many years. Already many local people have been treated and testify to this. Recently, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Martin, of Lady Park, attended following Mrs. Martin's accident in the garden. As Ted witnessed, "the treatment was excellent, we couldn't have had better treatment anywhere."