Archived: Walk in Centre

Updated 4 August 2022

The Walk in Centre is situated within the emergency department (ED) of Dewsbury and District Hospital, Halifax Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF13 4HS, which is part of Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust (MYHT). The service is commissioned by NHS Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group. The service is nurse-led and provides urgent primary care for minor ailments and injuries with no requirement for patients to pre-book an appointment or to be registered at the centre or with a GP practice.

The service is operated by Locala Health & Wellbeing, a not-for-profit community healthcare provider, which delivers a range of NHS services within the community. Locala currently provides services in Bradford and Calderdale as well as Kirklees. Locala operates from Beckside Court (First Floor), Bradford Road, Batley WF17 5PW.

The nurse-led service provides assessment, advice and treatment for a range of minor illness and a selection of minor injuries. The provider has introduced a health care support worker role to the service to support the service model. The service does not see children under two years of age or women with pregnancy related issues.

The service is located within an area of the hospital ED and consists of four bays, a storage area and a small open desk adjacent to this area. Staff consult with patients within the bays and have access to patient notes using mobile computer workstations.

The service operates every day of the year. It is open between 9am and 8pm Monday to Friday and between 10am and 6pm on a Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays.

There is a dedicated waiting room for patients accessing the service. There is level access and accessible facilities with car parking available within the hospital grounds.

The service employs a male ‘modern matron’ who is the clinical lead, five female nurse practitioners, one male health care support worker, three reception staff and a reception officer. The service regularly uses agency staff.

The Walk in Centre is registered with the Care Quality Commission to deliver services in relation to:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Kirklees has an ethnically diverse population with 21% of residents noting their ethnicity to be non-white in the 2011 Census. The largest group is people of South Asian origin which is 15%.

Updated 4 August 2022

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at the Walk in Centre, Dewsbury and District Hospital on 23 February 2017. The overall rating for the service was requires improvement and a breach of the legal requirements was found. The full comprehensive report for the February 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Walk in Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 17 October 2017 to confirm that the service had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection on 23 February 2017. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Overall the service is now rated as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The provider had implemented a system to assure themselves that all the appropriate checks were carried out by the employing agency on locum staff.
• The provider demonstrated quality improvement activity.
• The provider had taken steps to reduce risks to patients within the Walk in Centre by working to clarify arrangements and responsibilities for the monitoring and management of equipment and the environment.
• The service had decided not to see or treat children under two years of age until a protocol for the management of this age group was agreed with Mid Yorks Hospitals Trust (MYHT). We were shown evidence that work to achieve this protocol was underway. All staff we spoke with were aware of this and children were directed to the emergency department.

In addition the provider should:

• Continue to work with Mid Yorks Hospitals Trust to ensure the reduction of risks to patients through the continued review and formulation of written protocols and agreements for the area.
• Review their arrangements for carrying out fire drills in conjunction with Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust in line with Government guidelines.
• Deliver on their plan to carry out a patient satisfaction survey in November 2017.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice