Urgent Care Centre prepares for busy school holidays

Dr Gramatzki (in green) and Shafqut Azam (in blue), nurse practitioner

Doctors and nurses at the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) at Rochdale Infirmary are preparing for what they expect will be a busy couple of months as local children break up from school for the summer holidays.

The UCC is run by experienced nurse practitioners, doctors and GPs. Staff can treat non life-threatening walk-in injuries and ailments, that don’t require an A&E department, but cannot wait for a GP or on-call doctor's appointment.

The centre treats patients from the Rochdale borough and parts of Rossendale and East Lancashire.

To date, over 65,000 patients have been treated at the UCC.

Nicola Rigby, UCC nurse manager at Rochdale Infirmary, said: “We are preparing for a busy summer.

"Over the school summer holidays we would ask people to be careful whilst out playing and enjoying themselves, but we are here to help and deal with people’s cuts, bumps, sprains, burns, fractures or other conditions that are so common at this time of year.

“Whilst we are happy to see and treat people with minor injuries or minor illness, we would stress that adults with chest pains, or anyone with breathing difficulties or serious illness should ring 999. Equally, many minor complaints such as coughs and colds, insect bites, hay fever and allergies can be self treated or advice obtained from a local pharmacy. Advice on the most appropriate place to go can always be found via NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or online at www.nhs.uk .”

Patients with very serious injury or illness (999 calls) are taken, usually by ambulance automatically, to neighbouring A&E departments or a specialist hospital, where appropriate. The nearest A&E departments are at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, The Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital. The nearest A&E facilities for children are also based at these hospital sites.

In the run up to the school summer holidays, the NHS has been giving advice on how the public can self-care for some of the more common health complaints, with some basic tips and medicine cabinet essentials. Stomach upsets, strains, insect bites, hay fever and allergies can be treated without the need for a GP appointment.

Pharmacy staff are working with the local NHS to help people to use the right health service first time, as part of the NHS Choose Well campaign. Health leaders believe more than 51 million people a year who visit their GP with common complaints could either care for themselves or visiting their local high-street pharmacy for help.