Archived: Corby Urgent Care Centre

Updated 25 July 2017

Corby Urgent Care Centre is operated by Lakeside Limited in a purpose built facility and is a GP-led centre focused on early decision-making for patients presenting with symptoms or an illness.

A team of 30 staff provide the service, led by a GP clinical director. There are three salaried GPs, seven nurse practitioners, four healthcare assistants and four urgent care technicians. A matron and centre manager provide day-to-day leadership and a team of dedicated receptionists and administrators support the service.

The centre is open seven days a week between 8am and 8pm and provides services to patients regardless of whether they are registered with a GP. Three GPs provide the service on a Monday and two GPs provide the service Tuesday to Sunday. Two nurse practitioners are available daily and a team of urgent care technicians provide clinical support in phlebotomy, bloods and cannulation.

The centre has eight consulting rooms, two treatment rooms including a resuscitation room, two triage rooms, a plaster room, x-ray and diagnostic facilities and 12 observation couches. There are three four-bedded observation bays for treatment investigation and clinical observation and staff can arrange transfer to hospital through the local ambulance service if overnight observation is needed.

The centre accepts medical students and provides a seven-day training block for clinical competency development.

Between April 2016 and January 2017 the centre saw 58,727 patients and conducted 21,361 diagnostic tests.

The centre is readily accessible for people who use wheelchairs and by parents with pushchairs. A portable hearing loop system is available and there are quiet waiting facilities for patients who find the main waiting area can cause anxiety. Private space is available for breast-feeding. There is step-free access to all clinical areas, facilities for bariatric access, waiting areas and a coffee shop.

We had not previously inspected Corby Urgent Care Centre.

Updated 25 July 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Corby Urgent Care Centre on 9 March 2017. Overall the centre 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 an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events. However there was room for improvement in relation to dissemination of learning from incidents.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed and the practice sought to continually improve processes, including through escalation processes.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand. Improvements were made to the quality of care as a result of complaints and concerns.
• The centre had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The provider proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.
• Clinicians sort patient’s views and involved them in decisions about their care. This meant patients had input into their condition management plans as a strategy to help empower them to improve their health.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement. This included through multidisciplinary working to provide staff with emergency care training and with a local ambulance service to ensure appropriate patient access.
• Clinical staff had access to a digital ‘app’ that enabled them to see the demand on the centre and current staffing levels at any time. This meant staff could offer to provide extra cover during times of exceptional demand.

There was an area where the provider should make improvements:

• The centre should implement a system to ensure all staff are made aware of learning from significant events.

There was an area of outstanding practice:

• In the 12 months prior to our inspection, the centre achieved a 94% avoidance in hospital admissions, this was due to effective use of the Manchester triage scores.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice