Walk-in centre at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital 'must improve'

The Care Quality Commission visited the Shropshire Walk-In Centre at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital at the end of September.

Inspectors have now published a report praising the general levels of care provided at the unit but criticising the lack of information leaflets, complaint procedures or failing to inform patients of waiting times.

The walk-in centre was moved from Monkmoor to the Royal Shrewsbury site in late 2014 in a bid to offset a huge increase in the number of people coming through the doors of A&E.

The CQC report said the service's provider – Shropshire CCG – must ensure there is quality improvement activity and monitoring of prescribing which is specific to the walk-in service and should improve patient outcomes, ensure there is clinical leadership, consider introducing an accident book for the unit's own staff and provide patient literature.

Read the full CQC report on the Shropshire Walk-In Centre here

The inspection report read: "The walk-in centre did not have a local clinical lead GP and there was a lack of clinical leadership governance arrangements for example clinical audit.

"Patients were triaged by A&E qualified nursing staff as a fails.0afe process to ensure patients attended the most appropriate service to meet their needs.

"The triage process had changed in July 2016 and it was part of a pilot entitled, 'Patient Streaming.' Patients could not simply choose to attend the walk-in centre.

"Patient outcomes were hard to identify as little or no reference was made in terms of auditing clinical care and treatment.

"There were no provider information leaflets, complaint leaflets, or posters about the pilot streaming protocol or about patient choice, as the local hospital had determined that the provider should not locate these in the shared waiting area within the A&E department.

"Patients spoken with were confused as to what the urgent care centre/walk-in centre or minor injuries unit was and of the service they provided.

"We found the service lacked a programme of continuous clinical audit, which would be used to monitor quality and to make improvements."

The service was rated as good in regards of safety, it being caring and responsiveness. However, it was rated overall as requiring improvement.

A spokesman for Shropshire CCG said: "The CCG has noted from the report that the walk-in centre is considered safe and caring, and that it is well equipped and popular with patients.

"The CQC have highlighted areas that need improvement and we shall be discussing these with the provider to make sure that action is taken to make sure these weaknesses are addressed."