Proposed changes for Urgent Care

We are proposing an Urgent Care Centre, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on both the Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI) sites.

These Centres would provide access to the right advice in the right place, first time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The Centres would be staffed by doctors and emergency nurses with x-rays and blood testing available.  Equipment available in the Centres would include full resuscitation trolleys, oxygen, suction and emergency drugs.

The Five Year Plan from Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust shows that 54% of the people who currently attend A&E departments need urgent medical attention, but 46% do not actually need the full specialised services of an emergency department and these patients could be dealt with elsewhere quickly and more appropriately.

“As a GP, I know that an Urgent Care Centre would be the right place for many of the people who currently go to A&E.  It would be open 24/7, staffed by highly experienced doctors and nurses who have trained in emergency care over many years”

Dr Majid Azeb. GP at Southowram Practice and Urgent Care Lead for Calderdale

 

Why are changes needed to urgent and emergency care services in Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield?

Both of the Urgent Care Centres at Calderdale and Huddersfield would treat:

• Sprains and strains
• Broken limb bones
• Infections that may need treatment
• Minor burns and scalds
• Minor head injuries
• Insect and animal bites
• Minor eye injuries
• A condition that would normally be treated at a GP practice but the practice is closed or the patient cannot get an appointment as early as needed

For this arrangement to work as well as possible we would need to:

• help people understand when it is appropriate to call for an ambulance, so that those who need emergency care can be taken directly to the Emergency Centre
• do more to work with NHS 111 and the public so that people could be signposted to the best place to get the right help, this may be through a repeated public education programme
• ensure that if people do make their own way to the Urgent Care Centre with problems that need specialist care, the staff in the Urgent Care Centre have the necessary skills to make sure they are stabilised and then transferred.

Our CCG and health leaders recognise that improvements are also needed to GP services to make it easier for people to be seen quickly at their own local GP practice, as we know from feedback received that this is very important to local people.

Both CCGs are planning improvements to in-hours and out of hours GP services to reduce the need for patients to attend hospital when they have an urgent care need.

You can read a summary of the key points of the proposed changes, or read one of our documents including the Consultation Document or Summary for more detail.

We have also included a page on Travel and Transport which has all the documents relating to the travel analysis undertaken as part of the Pre-Consultation Business Case.

You may also wish to read the answers to the questions that people have already sent in. We will be updating this document as and when questions are sent in.