Another day in the life
Results from the visits in 2015 showed that 50% of people would have attended A&E if the Urgent Care Centre had not been open, highlighting the vital role the centres play in the local health system. Our visits also raised issues around an apparent lack of appointment availability at some local GP practices.
For the follow up visits we decided to visit the centres regularly over a period of months to gather the views of as wide a range of patients as possible.
Report overview
Overall, we found the service offered to patients to be of a very high standard at both centres, certainly that’s the feedback we’ve received from the public.
The Widnes Urgent Care Centre generally had more patients attending it on the days we were there.
We noted that waiting times often rose around the times of staff changeovers, this is something that we feel needs to be looked at and improved on.
Response received from NHS Halton CCG, ‘…As Commissioners of the service we are seeking to improve the services offered by the Urgent Care Centres and as part of our improvement plan for 18/19 we will address the recommendations within the report and ensure our Urgent Care Centres are part of an integrated urgent care system and meet the national directive of Urgent Treatment Centres…’
