Archived: Primecare Walsall Urgent Care Centre

Updated 3 May 2018

The urgent care centre and out of hours (OOH) provided by Nestor Primecare is sited within Walsall Manor Hospital. Nestor Primecare is a division of the Allied Healthcare Group. The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission as an urgent care and out of hours service. Primecare operate a hub and spoke system for urgent care centres within Walsall. This service, based at the hospital is the hub site. The spoke service based in the Saddlers Centre was not inspected with this service.

Primecare urgent care and out of hours service is sited within Walsall Manor Hospital, Moat Road, Walsall. WS2 9PS.

The urgent care centre has a mainly agency and consultancy model for clinical staff. The service has regular agency advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) and GPs working on a consultancy basis. The substantive staff have dedicated managerial support along with a clinical matron (lead nurse) and clinical services manager. On this site, the matron works in a clinical capacity, supporting best practice with the nursing staff and encouraging conversation with the host emergency department. The registered manager is also the safeguarding lead for the service.

The urgent care service is open daily from 7am to midnight. The out of hours service commences at 6.30pm and continues overnight until 8am hrs daily. Patients’ can access the urgent care centre at the hub by walking in or telephoning 111 to book an appointment. A home visit can be requested and patients can be signposted to the service from local GP surgeries. The 111 service also directs patients to use this service during service opening hours. A few patients arrive at the service via the ambulance service. For the out of hours service all appointments, either for the patient to attend the service or to be visited are made via the 111 service.

The website for the service is: www.walsallurgentcare.nhs.uk

Updated 3 May 2018

This service is rated as Good overall. (Not previously inspected)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Primecare Hub Walsall Manor on 06 March 2018. This inspection was part of our inspection programme.

At this inspection we found:

• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided with a dedicated audit. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice