Updated 4 September 2019
The provider of this service is the Isle of Wight NHS Trust. The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is the only integrated acute, community, mental health and ambulance health care provider in England. Established in April 2012 the Trust provides a full range of health services to an island population of 140,000.
The Urgent Care Service Out of Hours (UCS) is located in the fracture clinic at St Mary’s Hospital, Parkhurst Road, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5TG. The fracture clinic is closed during the service’s hours of operation.
In October 2016 the Isle of Wight NHS Trust took over the sole running of the out of hour’s service and walk in centre and renamed it the Urgent Care Centre (UCS). This included the Out of Hours GP services for the Isle of Wight. On 3rd July 2017 the walk-in service closed during weekdays.
On weekdays between 8am and 6.30pm patients are advised to make an appointment with their GP practice.
The Out of Hours GP service continued to provide a Primary Care Service between 6.30pm and 8:00am weekdays and at weekends and bank holidays. The walk-in service is open from 8.00am until 8.00pm weekends and Bank holidays. The service could be accessed by calling NHS 111. Patients were encouraged to call NHS 111 before visiting St. Mary’s Hospital so that patients could be directed to the appropriate service.
At the time of our inspection the out of hours service employed two GPs and an Advanced Clinical Practitioner covering the daily duties St Mary’s hospital from 6.30pm to midnight.
The Trust had a third-party contract with a specialist out of hours company based on the mainland to provide GP triage telephone services for the out of hours service from 6.30pm to 8.00am daily and at weekends and bank holidays the company provided telephone consultations 24hrs of the day.
Nurses from the accident and emergency department assessed patients attending the emergency department and non-emergency cases were directed to the out of hours service where appropriate.
After midnight the Out of Hours service was supported by the mainland GPs by telephone, and face to face appointments were attended by a community practitioner. A community practitioner could be a paramedic or nurse and were supported by the Emergency Department at St Mary’s Hospital.
Patients could self-refer to the walk-in service at weekends and Bank holidays. Those attending the UCS, depending on their needs, are seen by a GP subject to the outcome of the triage. The service is open from 8.00am until 8.00pm weekends and Bank holidays.
The UCS will redirect individuals to other services where the individual does not have an urgent care need and their problem can be better dealt with by another service. The weekend rotas were staffed by from a bank of 19 GPs available from the Isle of Wight and the mainland.