Updated 18 January 2019
The provider, Hurley Clinic Partnership, has been commissioned since 1 July 2014 to provide an urgent care centre for minor injuries and illnesses, and a GP out of hours service at Urgent Care Centre Queen Mary Hospital. The service is available to residents of the London Borough of Bexley and the surrounding areas, and operates from Frognal Avenue, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 6LT.
This is managed by the provider as an integrated single service rather than as two separate services. Although the service is commissioned by Bexley Clinical Commissioning Group, the urgent care service is available to both local residents and to patients who might work in the local area. The CCG area of Bexley does not have access to an accident and emergency department and patients attending Urgent Care Centre Queen Mary Hospital requiring care from an accident and emergency service are redirected to the closest hospitals with emergency departments.
Urgent Care Centre Queen Mary Hospital is all located at street level and is accessible to those with poor mobility and wheelchair users.
- The service’s non-clinical management team include a senior operational manager, an operational manager and a data analyst and quality control team member. The clinical team leaders include their Deputy Medical Director for Bexley Unscheduled Care, a Lead Nurse and an Associate Director of Operations and Strategic Nursing Lead. The urgent care and out of hours services are managed by the same team.
Staffing in the service made up of a clinical mix of GPs, nurse practitioners, emergency care practitioners, streaming nurses, paediatric nurses, and healthcare assistants, and are supported by reception staff. In addition to the permanent staff at the service, there are also locum GPs, the majority of whom are long term regular locum used and provided through the Hurley Medical Bank.
The urgent care service is open 24 hours a day. The GP out of hours service is open from 6:30pm until 8:00am on weekdays and 24 hours a day at weekends.
The urgent care centre has an equal proportion of in and out of area walk in patients, is used by adults and children, for minor illnesses and / or injuries, and for redressings. Patients also access the urgent care service through NHS 111 direct bookings or referrals. The London Ambulance Service conveys low acuity patients to the service where it is determined a more suitable setting for them to receive care and treatment than a hospital emergency department. There is also a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) referral pathway into the service from Bexley GPs.
The GP out of hours service can be accessed via NHS 111 online or via telephone. Patients accessing the NHS 111 online bypass the traditional telephone route and are electronically placed into the GP OOH advice queue. Patients accessing the NHS 111 via telephone can be directed to the service for an advice call, asked to attend the service or are provided a home visit. From 1 December 2018, NHS 111 will operate the direct booking aspect to the GP out of hours service, and patients could be booked in directly for appointments at the service, or for home visits, following a clinical assessment by the NHS 111 service.