Urgent treatment centre

Urgent treatment centres in the United Kingdom are similar to walk-in clinics. They are provided by the National Health Service, not on a commercial basis. They are not often located in retail facilities and are generally on hospital sites where they take patients who may not need the facilities of the Accident and Emergency Department, but can be transferred from one to the other if necessary. They are intended to divert patients from the A&E departments, which are under great pressure,.[1] There has been a lack of public information about what services are provided and when. It has been pointed out that people need guidance to overcome an historic reliance on accident and emergency. Different words - walk-in centres, minor injury units and urgent care centres - have been used for similar facilities, but without the public understanding what exactly was on offer. In Blackpool the Walk-in centre and the Same Day Health Centre were both renamed Urgent Treatment Centres in August 2018. This was said to be a clear and comprehensive offer to patients. These urgent treatment centres were open for at least 12 hours a day, every day of the week, every week of the year, including bank holidays offering pre-bookable appointments.[2]

About 230 walk-in centres were opened in England in the 2000s. 51 closed between 2010 and 2014. 95 more were closed between 2014 and 2017 according to 38 Degrees. The Yeovil centre, opened in 2009, closed in 2017. The Somerset clinical commissioning group said too many people were misusing the town centre facility because it was convenient for them. It was replaced by an urgent care service at the hospital open from 10am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.[3] Walk-ins in North Ormesby and Eston were closed in 2017 and replaced by the South Tees Access Response service, run by ELM Alliance Ltd, an alliance of local GPs, which offered late night and weekend appointments at four GP surgeries.[4]

Some centres are run by hospital trusts. Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust took over Exeter's NHS walk-in centre from Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust in March 2018. It also runs Honiton Minor Injury Unit. The trust said they were more able to share skills and expertise and work as one team with the A&E department.[5]

The Care Quality Commission reported in June 2018 that about 10% of the urgent care services in England require improvement. They inspected 64 urgent care and walk-in centres.[6]

NHS England decided in 2019 that all areas of England should be served by a network of urgent treatment centres which must be GP-led, open at least 12 hours a day, every day, offer appointments that can be booked through NHS 111 or through a GP referral, and be equipped with basic diagnostic equipment. They are intended also to relieve the pressure on general practice. The many units with local names and differing levels of service are to be subsumed into them[7] and some will close.[8] The programme is led by the local sustainability and transformation partnerships.[9]