Updated 25 December 2023
DHU Healthcare Community Interest Company (CIC) deliver a diverse range of services to the population across several counties including Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands.
These services include urgent and emergency care, primary care, out of hours services (including community nursing services), and the NHS 111 service. The types of service provided in each county differs, for example, DHU CIC provide NHS 111 services across the East and West Midlands, and urgent care services across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. DHU was formed in 2006 following a merger of Derbyshire Medical Services and Derbyshire Healthcare.
DHU Healthcare CIC is a ‘not-for-profit’ community interest company, which employs more than 2,000 people in total. The organisation has several registrations with the CQC, but this inspection was focused upon the out-of-hours provision in North Derbyshire delivered by Ashgate Manor. DHU Healthcare CIC is registered with CQC as the provider of out-of-hours services across North Derbyshire to provide the regulated activities of transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely, and treatment of disease, disorder or injury,
Ashgate Manor is the registered location with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to deliver out-of-hours services to North Derbyshire. The city of Derby and southern Derbyshire out-of-hours service is also provided by DHU as part of a separate CQC registration.
The out-of-hours service is commissioned by NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB)/Joined Up Care Derbyshire.
The base is located at:
Ashgate Manor
Ashgate Road
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
S40 4AA
Patients who ring the NHS 111 service out-of-hours have their medical needs assessed by a call advisor or a clinical advisor based on the symptoms they report when they call. If a patient needs to be seen face-to-face by a clinician, appointments are booked directly into the most convenient GP out-of-hours site at one of 8 primary care centres across North Derbyshire; home visits are also provided where appropriate following triage. The out-of-hours primary care sites are:
Chesterfield: Ashgate Manor, Ashgate Rd, Chesterfield, S40 4AA. Open 6pm to 8am Monday-Friday, 24 hours at the weekend.
Buxton: Buxton Hospital, London Road, Buxton, SK17 9NJ. Open 6.30pm to midnight Monday-Friday, 8am to midnight at the weekend.
Clay Cross: Clay Cross Hospital, Market Street, S45 9NZ. Open 9am to 5pm at weekends.
New Mills: New Mills Health Centre, Hyde Bank Rd, High Peak, SK22 4BP. Open 6pm to 10.30pm Monday-Friday, 9am to 10.30pm at weekends.
Ashbourne: St Oswald's Hospital, Clifton Rd, Ashbourne, DE6 1DR. Open 8am to 4pm at weekends.
Bolsover: Castle Street Medical Centre, Castle Street, Bolsover, S44 6PP. Open 9am to 5pm Sunday.
Matlock: Whitworth Hospital, 330 Bakewell Rd, Matlock, DE4 2JD. This site was not operational at the time of our inspection apart from offering some remote advice.
Between 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023, just over 34,000 patients accessed care at one of these sites. We were unable to obtain figures for contacts where advice was provided (without the need for a face-to-face consultation) and home visits solely for the north of Derbyshire; however combined with the service provided in the south of the county, there were almost 143,500 patients consulted with advice, and just below 22,800 home visits, over the same 12-month period.
This CQC registration also incorporates:
The evening and night community nursing service, which DHU subcontract from the local community Trust, who provide the daytime service. DHU have 9 teams delivering this service across the whole county from 6pm to midnight, with 2 teams covering the service from midnight to 8am, operating 7 days a week.
Chesterfield Royal Hospital: (a pilot primary care streaming service co-located with urgent treatment centre) - Chesterfield Royal Hospital, S44 5BL. Open 8am to 11pm, 7 days. The streaming service is an initial triage at the front door to direct patients to the correct area of the department, dependent on the most appropriate pathway of care.
The 111 service is co-located at Ashgate Manor as part of an integrated and streamlined NHS 111 and out-of-hours service. The 111 service operates from the second floor whilst patients access the out-of-hours service on the ground floor. The NHS 111 service was not part of our inspection as this is a separate CQC registration. The 111 service was last inspected in 2019 and the report can be accessed via this link https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-2946395439
During the inspection in October 2023, we visited Ashgate Manor, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Clay Cross Hospital, Buxton Hospital and New Mills Health Centre.
At the time of our inspection, DHU employed over 400 staff in their out-of-hours service across the whole of Derbyshire including 111 advanced practitioners, 24 clinical practitioners 14 salaried GPs,142 health care assistants or combined reception/health care assistant roles and 60 drivers. Locum staff also supported the service.