Impact of our Urgent Care
Centres
One of the common messages that
the NHS conveys to the public is that Accident and Emergency (A&E)
departments should only be used in the event of an accident or an
emergency. Whilst A&E departments are open seven days a week, 24
hours a day, they are sometimes seeing people who do not need to be there,
which puts pressure on their ability to see and treat people who do need to be
there. This is why, in addition to promoting self-care, NHS 111 and Care
At The Chemist, NHS Halton CCG has invested in developing two Urgent Care
Centres – to relieve the pressure on A&E during peak periods of demand.
The Urgent Care Centre (UCC) on
the Halton Hospital site in Runcorn has been operational for around a year, the
UCC on Moor Lane, Widnes has been functioning for around six months. They are
both open seven days a week from 7am to 10.30pm (last patient at 10pm), which
is when people need them most and when A&E is most under pressure.
The UCCs are now starting to demonstrate their worth in reducing pressure from
Halton residents on A&E with fewer attendances at and admissions into local
A&Es by Halton residents. On average, Halton UCC patients wait less
than one hour from attendance to treatment, with almost every patient being
seen and treated with 4 hours. Patient satisfaction is also high, around
95%, and we have prevented around £657,000 of non-elective admissions.
More detail on the impact of the UCCs can be found on the website for The
Academy of Fabulous NHS Stuff - http://www.fabnhsstuff.net/2016/04/25/halton-urgent-care-centres/
In the coming months we want to
develop the Urgent Care Centres further. We can develop them to support
general practice and they can begin to deliver the goal of 7 day access to
general practice services, they can also offer more elective, outpatient
activity locally. We have more to do, but we want to build on the success
of the UCCs.
