City Walk-in Centre Listening Event Report - June 2024
Introduction
Healthwatch Liverpool staff visited City Walk-in Centre (WiC) on the afternoons of 21st May and 18th June 2024. There were so few patients present during our first visit that we decided to return in June.
We wanted to find out from patients what they thought of the service, where it worked well and where improvements could be made. We used a survey to ensure we asked everyone the same questions. We spoke with 17 patients, and because this is a relatively small number we decided to include all their comments in this report. We also spoke with members of staff.
City Walk-in Centre provides a nurse-led service and is managed by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust: https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/our-services/liverpool/walk-in-centres . In October 2023 the service moved to its current location at the Linda McCartney Centre on the Royal Liverpool Hospital site. This means it is very near the Royal’s A&E Department, and in theory it should be easy for patients to be appropriately referred between services where they may have presented at the wrong one.
However, we were told that there were occasional misunderstandings between the services. For example, some members of staff at the Royal thought that City WiC closed at 4pm. The WiC opening times are 8am – 8pm, but WiC staff told us the service will go to ‘triage only’ if it is busy from late afternoon onwards (5pm or 6pm) to ensure they can see all patients before closure at 8pm. When told the service is ‘triage only’ some patients may decide to go to A&E instead.
City WiC also is limited in what they treat patients for. WiC staff told us that there had been a GP stationed at the WiC when it first opened in October 2023, but this had stopped several months before. WiC staff were not sure if all A&E staff were aware of this. Sometimes patients had been referred from the Royal’s A&E to the WiC for things that WiC staff could not treat, so patients had to return to the A&E department. We were also told that occasionally information for patients who were referred from A&E had not been complete. We were encouraged to be told by WiC staff that regular meetings had now been set up between both services to iron out any issues.
Following our first visit to the City WiC we raised some of these issues with LUHFT and we were able to visit the Emergency Department at The Royal on the day of our second visit to the City WiC. Staff there told us that they have regular management meetings with Walk-In colleagues, at which both services exchange information and review any inappropriate referrals.
We were also told that Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Mersey Care have drawn up a draft contract to allow staff from each service to spend time shadowing colleagues in the other place or undertaking joint training. This was awaiting sign-off.
A&E staff are now aware that there’s no longer a GP based at the Walk-In. A&E now has employed two ‘Streamers’ (Care Navigators) who cover 7 days a week to signpost patients to the correct service. We were told that the biggest problem for A&E is when the Walk-In closes at 8pm, or moves to triage (assessment) only; there is then a surge in A&E attendees.
Key Findings
- The reason people mentioned most for choosing to go to City WiC was that it was the right place to come to for treatment.
- Most people we spoke to had not been to a Walk in Centre (WiC) in the previous year.
- Most positive comments were about friendly, helpful staff followed by fast triage.
- The main improvement people wanted to see was about waiting times, although many understood there were pressures.
- Most people had not been informed about expected waiting times.
- We saw no signage to distinguish the triage waiting area from the (post-triage) waiting area for treatment.
Downloads
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