Archived: West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care - Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre

Updated 8 January 2019

West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care – Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre (WUCC) is part of the Vocare group, which began in 1996 in the North East of England as a co-operative of local GPs providing healthcare to local people. Vocare Limited is a Totally Plc Company. WUCC has been operating since April 2016 and is commissioned by NHS Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) under a single contract to provide an integrated approach to urgent health care, which includes all the elements of out of hours, urgent care and walk-in services from one location. The services are organised and delivered in a co-ordinated way. Policies and protocols cover all services and Vocare provides centralised governance for its services, which are co-ordinated locally by service managers and senior clinicians.

WUCC is located on the first floor of the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton. An integrated model of urgent health services is available for the whole of Wolverhampton (population, 262,000). WUCC provides services to one of the most deprived areas of the West Midlands. People living in more deprived areas tend to have a greater need for health services. There is a lower value for income deprivation affecting children and older people in comparison to the average across England. The out of hours service (OOHs) is extended to patients registered at seven named practices in Seisdon:

• Claverley Surgery
• Dale Medical Practice
• Featherstone Family Health Centre
• Lakeside Medical Centre
• Moss Grove Surgery
• Russell House Surgery
• Tamar Medical Centre

WUCC is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for people who walk in, or are referred following contact with the NHS 111 service. The services provided include an out of hours service between the hours of 5.30pm and 9am on weekdays and 24 hours a day at weekends and bank holidays. All services are provided from one location. WUCC forms part of the urgent and emergency care centre at New Cross Hospital and is commissioned to provide treatment for minor injuries and illness for patients who do not require A&E treatment but who cannot wait until the next available appointment with their registered GP. Patients within this category undergo a triage assessment by a nurse employed by WUCC and a nurse employed by the hospital and if clinically assessed as appropriate are given an appointment to attend WUCC.

WUCC is led at a local level by a GP Lead, Centre Manager, Senior Team Leader and Lead Advanced Nurse Practitioner who have management oversight of the integrated services at a local level. All the services are staffed by the same group of doctors, nurses and reception staff. This includes the GP on shift who carries out home visits during the period when the patients’ registered GPs are closed.

There is a total of 63 staff working at WUCC. This number includes sessional GPs who are self- employed contractors. The organisational structure at WUCC include a Regional Director, an Assistant Regional Director, a Local Clinical Director and a Clinical Support Manager. Other staff roles include:

• 1 Salaried GP (Also has the role of the Regional Clinical Director)
• 1 Salaried GP lead – 3 sessions
• 21 Sessional GPs
• 1 Centre Manager
• 1 Senior Team Leader
• 1 Lead Advanced Nurse Practitioner
• 4 Advanced Nurse Practitioners
• 1 Emergency Care Practitioners
• 4 Nurse Practitioners
• 4 Junior Nurse Practitioners
• 6 Drivers
• 9 Receptionists
• 1 Senior Team Leader
• 2 Team Leaders
• 5 Despatches

Updated 8 January 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection February 2018 – Requires Improvement overall, however the practice was rated inadequate for providing effective services and remained in special measures).

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 previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care – Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre on 21 March 2017 as part of our regulatory functions. The service was rated as inadequate overall. The full comprehensive report for the March 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the 'all reports' link for West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care – Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk .

An announced focused inspection was carried out at West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care – Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre (WUCC) on 26 October 2017 to confirm that the service had taken appropriate action to meet the legal requirements in relation to the warning notices issued in July 2017. You can read the follow up inspection report, by selecting the 'all reports' link for West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care – Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk . 

A further announced comprehensive inspection was carried out at WUCC on 6 February 2018 and 27 February 2018 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 at our previous inspections on 21 March 2017 and to follow up on concerns received. The full comprehensive report for the February 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the 'all reports' link for West Midlands Doctors Urgent Care – Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre on our website at www.cqc.org.uk .

This inspection was an announced comprehensive inspection carried out on 8 November 2018 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 at our previous inspection in February 2018. This report covers our findings in relation to those requirements and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

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.
• Systems had been introduced to manage safety alerts. Risks to patients were assessed and well managed, particularly in relation to ensuring sufficient staff were available to meet surges in demand.
• The service had significantly improved their performance of the National Quality Requirements.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients could access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• Patients’ care needs were assessed and delivered in a timely way and according to need. An effective triage system had been implemented and all staff had received training to ensure a consistent practice.
• The service had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs. The vehicles used for home visits were maintained and well equipped.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported and valued members of the team.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the duty of candour.

There were areas where the provider should continue to make improvements:

• Ensure continued action is taken to achieve the National Quality Requirements performance indicators.

I am taking this service out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements that have been made to the quality of care provided by this service’

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice