Archived: Urgent Care Centre Market Harborough Minor Injury and Illness Unit Also known as Leicestershire and Rutland Urgent Care (LRUC)

Updated 4 October 2017

East Leicestershire and Rutland Urgent Care provides urgent care for minor injuries and illnesses to the residents of Oadby & Wigston, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Rutland and the surrounding areas.

The service comprises of four urgent care centres in the Leicestershire area originally commissioned by the East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The commissioning contract is now held by the West Leicestershire CCG. The service is managed and operated by the registered provider Vocare. Vocare is a provider of outsourced clinical healthcare services on behalf of the NHS. Vocare were commissioned to run the service from April 2015. All four urgent care centres were visited as part of this inspection. The location addresses are as follows:

• Urgent Care Centre Oadby & Wigston Walk In Medical Centre, 18 The Parade, Oadby, Leicestershire, LE2 5BJ
• Market Harborough Urgent Care Centre, St Luke’s Hospital, 31 Leicester Road, Market Harborough, LE16 7BN
• Urgent Care Centre Melton Mowbray Hospital Minor Injury and Illness Service, Thorpe Road, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE13 1SJ
• Urgent Care Centre Rutland Memorial Hospital, Cold Overton Road, Oakham, Leicestershire, LE15 6NT

Vocare employs a Clinical & Operational Lead who oversees the day-to-day running of the four urgent care centres with a GP who is the Local Clinical Director. They have a number of part time, self-employed sessional GPs, two whole time equivalent who work at the Oadby & Wigston location. Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) and Emergency Care Practitioners (ECPs), seven whole time equivalent were employed across all four locations. At the locations where there was no GP present they had access to clinical support either by telephone or by online video call if needed. Vocare uses regular locum ANPs and ECPs to support the delivery of the service. There is a team of reception staff led by a team leader, a rota lead and a governance lead.

Urgent Care Centre Oadby & Wigston Walk In Medical Centre is open from 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 8pm Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. Market Harborough Urgent Care Centre, Urgent Care Centre Melton Mowbray Hospital Minor Injury and Illness Service and Urgent Care Centre Rutland Memorial Hospital are all open from 5pm to 9pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to 7pm Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Patients can access the service either as a walk in-patient, via the NHS 111 service or by referral from a healthcare professional.

Updated 4 October 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Urgent Care Centre Oadby & Wigston Walk In Medical Centre on 15 and 16 March 2017. Overall the service is rated as good.

Our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

• There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording significant events. A monthly bulletin was sent to all staff that outlined any lessons learnt from significant events.
• The service had clearly defined and embedded systems to minimise risks to patient safety.
• Patient safety alerts and MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) alerts were received centrally by the Vocare clinical governance lead and disseminated as appropriate to the service. However, we found that staff were not aware of one alert we asked to review in relation to the prescribing of emergency contraception that was issued in September 2016.
• Staff were aware of current evidence based guidance.
• Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Performance data showed that 96% of people who arrived at the service completed their treatment within 2 hours. This was greater than the target of 95%.
• Information about services and how to complain was available. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• Results from a survey carried out by an external company showed that 86% of respondents felt the Urgent Care Centres were easy to get to. Patients could access the service either as a walk in patient, via the NHS 111 service or by referral from a healthcare professional.
• Patients we spoke with told us they were satisfied with the care provided by the service and said their dignity and privacy was respected.
• All the locations had good facilities and were well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and the majority of staff felt supported by management. The service proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• A small number of staff raised concerns regarding staffing levels and support at one of the locations, however we saw that the leadership team had developed infrastructures to ensure improvement and were aware that there had been a period of unsettle due to recent organizational change.
• The service had a staff recognition scheme. Staff members were encouraged to nominate their colleagues for a reward if they had exceeded what was expected of them or if they had made a recommendation to improve the service that had been implemented.
• The provider was aware of the requirements of the duty of candour. Examples we reviewed showed the service complied with these requirements.

The areas where the provider should improvements are:

• Review the process for the dissemination of MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) alerts to ensure staff are aware of all relevant alerts.
• Monitor the implementation of the staff meetings to ensure effective communication with all staff.
• Implement an initial assessment of patients to ensure they are safe to wait, where wait times are greater than 30 minutes.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice