Urgent care unit

Author
Discussion

PositronicRay

Original Poster:

27,534 posts

190 months

Monday 13th March 2023
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Local hospital used to have a walk in minor injuries unit, 9-5 six days a week. Very good too great service.

It's now been renamed "urgent care unit" but only open tues- thurs. Hardly urgent then.

xx99xx

2,251 posts

80 months

Monday 13th March 2023
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I believe they are funded by the local GPs to take the stuff they haven't got time for / can't be arsed with. Clearly they don't fund enough for a 7 days a week service which puts the pressure back on A&E.

littlegreenfairy

10,134 posts

228 months

Monday 13th March 2023
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Ours is open 7-7 and staffed mainly by paramedics who are fed up being on the road. They are absolutely excellent and so efficient. Cannot fault them at all. This is the next town across however- the very local one is absolutely rubbish and open at random times with 12 hour waits as standard.

PositronicRay

Original Poster:

27,534 posts

190 months

Tuesday 14th March 2023
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littlegreenfairy said:
Ours is open 7-7 and staffed mainly by paramedics who are fed up being on the road. They are absolutely excellent and so efficient. Cannot fault them at all. This is the next town across however- the very local one is absolutely rubbish and open at random times with 12 hour waits as standard.
Pre covid ours was too, properly good. During they covid closed their doors, and just haven't got back together.

Brainpox

4,139 posts

158 months

Tuesday 14th March 2023
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OP how do you feel about recent strike action from NHS workers?

PositronicRay

Original Poster:

27,534 posts

190 months

Tuesday 14th March 2023
quotequote all
I don't think all the dissatisfaction is about pay,

xx99xx

2,251 posts

80 months

Tuesday 14th March 2023
quotequote all
Brainpox said:
OP how do you feel about recent strike action from NHS workers?
Not sure if relevant if the urgent care units are not funded by the NHS.

Bill

54,267 posts

262 months

Tuesday 14th March 2023
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xx99xx said:
I believe they are funded by the local GPs to take the stuff they haven't got time for / can't be arsed with. Clearly they don't fund enough for a 7 days a week service which puts the pressure back on A&E.
GP led, not GP funded. They're meant to take pressure off A&E by taking the less serious stuff.

JapanRed

1,570 posts

118 months

Tuesday 14th March 2023
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All A&E’s will eventually be rebranded as Urgent Care Centres. Trying to move away from it being a place to go for non-urgent accidents.

xx99xx

2,251 posts

80 months

Tuesday 14th March 2023
quotequote all
Bill said:
GP led, not GP funded. They're meant to take pressure off A&E by taking the less serious stuff.
When I had the pleasure of waiting 10 hours overnight at an urgent care unit a few months ago, they explained that they were funded by the local GP practices and could only afford 1 Dr and 1 nurse after midnight.

At 7am, more staff started to arrive. I took their word for it as I haven't researched how they are funded I just know that it's not enough!

The A&E next door were sending people to the urgent care unit (mostly kids) and that was a Sunday night so not the busiest of nights. Clearly A&E struggle too.

Steve_H80

376 posts

29 months

Wednesday 15th March 2023
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They are great things Urgent Care Centres, it keeps the A&E free for blue light traffic, and folks who just need GP type care get it there and then.
When it's set up right it works brilliantly for everyone, but like everything NHS it needs a lot of funding and staff, but the NHS has been gradually starved of both for a long time now.
If the money has gone they can't stay open.
Most people have absolutely no idea how expensive healthcare is, although as we drift towards more private health care folks is going to find out and it'll be a nasty shock.

PositronicRay

Original Poster:

27,534 posts

190 months

Wednesday 15th March 2023
quotequote all
Steve_H80 said:
They are great things Urgent Care Centres, it keeps the A&E free for blue light traffic, and folks who just need GP type care get it there and then.
When it's set up right it works brilliantly for everyone, but like everything NHS it needs a lot of funding and staff, but the NHS has been gradually starved of both for a long time now.
If the money has gone they can't stay open.
Most people have absolutely no idea how expensive healthcare is, although as we drift towards more private health care folks is going to find out and it'll be a nasty shock.
Agreed, talking to a nurse yesterday, upset about the running of A&E. She says her unit is 20% understaffed but recently hired 4 new managers, from non medical back grounds.

Someone needs to drive the branding from ' minor injuries unit' to 'urgent care unit'

dave_s13

13,868 posts

276 months

Wednesday 15th March 2023
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My wife stabbed me* on boxing day last year and I was in and out of our local urgent treatment centre within 15mins of arrival.

No complaints at all.

  • I got a new, very shape chef's knife as a present. As I passed the cheese over she accidentally stabbed me between the Knuckles....couldn't stop the bleeding so off we went....I assumed I'd be there hours.

PositronicRay

Original Poster:

27,534 posts

190 months

Wednesday 15th March 2023
quotequote all
dave_s13 said:
My wife stabbed me* on boxing day last year and I was in and out of our local urgent treatment centre within 15mins of arrival.

No complaints at all.

  • I got a new, very shape chef's knife as a present. As I passed the cheese over she accidentally stabbed me between the Knuckles....couldn't stop the bleeding so off we went....I assumed I'd be there hours.
That sounds great, 9-5 tues-thurs I'm sure ours would be similar, fine capable nurses.

Brainpox

4,139 posts

158 months

Friday 17th March 2023
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xx99xx said:
Brainpox said:
OP how do you feel about recent strike action from NHS workers?
Not sure if relevant if the urgent care units are not funded by the NHS.
Money comes from the same pot in the end. The problem will either be not enough funding available to open fully or not enough money on offer to attract enough staff. Those two issues become one when pay rises are expected to come out of existing budgets.

Slightly different but community diagnostic centres aren’t funded by NHS trusts directly but as well as taking patients away from the acute sites they’ve also done a great job of taking staff too. Fewer people joining than leaving so you have services across multiple sites but open less hours than they used to. Our CT and MRI scanners are closed more often than they are open since CDCs started opening up as they offer better working conditions and have pinched the staff.

Point is if you don’t support strikes and keep voting the current government in you can expect more odd choices like “urgent” care centres that are only open three days a week…