Open day marks six months of UCC

Rochdale Infirmary

An open day has been held at Rochdale Infirmary’s Urgent Care Centre and Clinical Assessment Unit to mark six months since they opened.

The UCC and CAU were opened in April 2011, replacing the Accident and Emergency Department at the Infirmary; since the opening 20,000 patients have been through the doors of the UCC and 2,300 in CAU and to mark 6 month milestone the Trust invited Councillors and representatives from Community groups to take a look at what is on offer.

The UCC provides treatment for people who have a minor injury or illness. It consists of a team of GPs, practitioners and nurses.

The new overnight and short stay Clinical Assessment Unit has 12 beds and six trolleys. It provides patient assessment and treats patients who have been referred directly from their local GP, from the community, or the new Urgent Care Centre.

Patients are assessed, observed and treated on the CAU up to a maximum of 48 hours.

Steve Taylor, Divisional Director of Medicine for the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust, said the aim of the open day is to: “get the message out about what we are doing here.”

 He said: “There has been a lot of negative comment about what has been lost, but there has been lots of gain here.”

Mr Taylor added: “The clinical staff developed this model – not managers sat in offices. The staff own it; they know what is right for patients.

“The whole NHS is focusing on delivering as many services as possible near to peoples’ homes.”

Mr Taylor described what is in place in the UCC and CAU as “unique” and said that the Trust is being contacted by other hospitals up and down the country who want to “emulate” the model in place at the Infirmary.

He added that the service is something to be proud of and that the Trust wants to learn and hear from patients about their treatment and experiences so it can be developed more.

The next big thing planned for the Infirmary is a Rheumatology hub, Mr Taylor explained, that rheumatological services will be centralised and a team of experts will be based in a hub at the Infirmary, serving not just the people of Rochdale but people from across the Trust’s other hospitals.

Consultant Shona McCallum, added: “We still have impatient beds, we still have full diagnostics, CT scanner, MRI scanner, all that is here. The unit is run by senior clinicians, patients are seen and assessed immediately using a management plan, if they need to be admitted we have beds and if it is more serious they will be transferred to another site.”