Urgent Treatment Centre

The local NHS team has set up the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) based within the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.  The service is supported by local GP practices, IC24 (who provide the Out of Hours service) and staff at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.

The service is located at the William Harvey Hospital and it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Urgent Treatment Centres are GP-led, open 24 hours a day at the main hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate, 7 days a week including Bank Holidays. They offer appointments that can be booked through 111 or through a GP referral, and are equipped to diagnose and deal with many of the most common urgent conditions that people might otherwise have attended A&E for.

Examples of the types of injuries or illness suitable for a UTC include:

• Preventing long waits in Accident and Emergency Departments
• Patients receive the right care from the right clinician, improving patient care and reducing pressure at A&E
• So the Emergency Department (ED) is able to focus on patients who are acutely unwell with potentially life threatening injuries or illnesses  

Keeping services COVID secure means:

Patients who ‘walk-in’ without an appointment will have a clinical assessment conducted within 15 minutes of arrival. After initial assessment patients may be:

• Seen if they urgently need to be
• asked to come back at an appointment time to help the UTC observe social distancing guidelines and keep patients and staff safe redirected to a more appropriate service

The national standards guidance means there is more consistent care, and improved access for everyone; offering help with both minor injury and illness and making best use of our local GPs, and NHS staff to support patients.

As a result the previous minor injury service (MIU) delivered by some practices along with the rural weekend service (Hamstreet, Tenterden, Woodchurch and Charing) will no longer be provided from 31 October 2020.

You can still call your GP during working hours for advice. Your practice may direct you to the UTC for support.

If you are not sure who to contact, the best thing is to call NHS 111 so they can assess you and make sure you are cared for by the right service.

Queries regarding the service change to be directed to Kent & Medway CCG: ek.urgentandemergencycareteam@nhs.net

Patient care queries: Please contact your practice in the first instance as they will have your clinical details to hand to help.