Lymington Urgent Treatment Centre

This service is rated as Good overall.

This was our first inspection of this service.

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 Lymington Urgent Treatment Centre on 11 October 2021, as 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. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles and were provided with training to meet patients’ needs.
• There were arrangements for planning and monitoring the number and mix of staff needed. The rotas were managed to ensure staff did not work too many hours. Capacity and demand was worked out several weeks in advance to ensure appropriate staffing levels.
• 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.

We saw areas of outstanding practice:

• The provider had developed unique clinical pathways based on patient presentations at the service. These were developed in response to a specific need and followed detailed research. Examples of these included electrical injury pathway and a rape and sexual assault standard operating procedure ensuring patients with urgent and high risk needs could be referred to the right service quickly.
• Working collaboratively with other stakeholders, the provider had installed a ‘hot hub’ in the car park. A ‘hot hub’ is a place where patients with COVID-19 symptoms can be seen face to face. The project had considered infrastructure and utilities already in place and had been set up within two weeks of decision making. Patients can only access the ‘hot hub’ if they are booked in by a clinician. The ‘hot hub’ had been a success and was fully booked every day it was open (six days a week).
• Two members of staff (including the registered manager) were trained in the Esther model of care. The aim of the model is to create patient centred care, through patient feedback. The provider held regular virtual Esther cafes with patients to obtain feedback. As a result of patient feedback through the Esther café, the point of entry traffic light system was set up which informed patients when it was safe to enter. Following feedback from patients, it was decided to increase the triage waiting chairs from three to six and allow three people to queue inside the waiting room whilst waiting to book in.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care