Urgent care services in Walsall to move to Manor Hospital

Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has announced the move which will take place on April 12 2019 at 8pm.

This move is an early implementation of the CCG’s existing plans to move the service to a single site by 2020.

There will be an increased number of appointments available at the Manor Hospital, in addition to the extra GP appointments that are being provided from the primary care hubs at evenings and weekends, resulting in a significant overall rise in the number of appointments available.

Professor Simon Brake from the CCG said: “This relocation of urgent care services to a single site has been the vision of the CCG for some time and complements the CCG’s commitment to deliver the right care, at the right time, in the right setting.

"We feel that where appropriate, people should be able to be treated out of hospital and in the community, which is why we now provide over 40,000 additional GP appointments in Walsall, on weekday evenings, weekends and bank holidays.

“For patients with more urgent needs, it will be better for them to be seen at an urgent care centre within the hospital site, where they can access a full range of emergency services more quickly if necessary."

Ruchi Joshi, clinical lead for emergency services at Walsall Healthcare Trust added: “Moving the Urgent Treatment Centre from Walsall town centre to the Manor Hospital location has a number of benefits. It allows staff to assess patients and decide whether they need to be seen by urgent care or in the Emergency Department (ED) and staff can also arrange blood tests, X-rays and scans if necessary and seek specialist opinion.

“Currently some patients will attend the ED in hours and once assessed they are referred to the Urgent Care Centre and vice versa.  This means that the patient is assessed twice and there is a delay as the patient travels in between the two sites.

"A centralised service is easier for patients as all treatments can be delivered on site. Co-locating two already successful services and having a single place of access for the public means that, depending on their symptoms, our patients will be seen by the best person to care for them.”