News and media releases from the Surrey Heartlands area
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Standardising access to urgent and emergency care for Surrey patients
Minor Injury Units (MIUs) and Walk in Centres (WICs) in Surrey are set to be re-designed as Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs) in a bid to standardise access to same day urgent care for patients.
The move is planned to take place from 1 April 2025 onwards, with services enhanced over the coming months, and comes as part of Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System’s (ICS) drive to simplify access to urgent care for local people.
The change to UTCs will see enhanced services at the four sites; Ashford Walk in Centre, Woking Walk In-Centre, Haslemere Minor Injuries Unit and Caterham Dene Minor Injury Unit over time.
Professor Andrew Rhodes, Joint Chief Medical Officer for Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System (ICS), said:
Walk in Centres and Minor Injury Units have developed over time, so they have different opening times and offer different services. This can be extremely confusing to patients and can default in them attending hospital emergency departments because they are unclear on where they can access the care they need and which services will be open.
Not only will this change help standardise the service offer and help ensure patients are able to access same-day urgent care services more easily, but it will simplify their pathway and reduce the reliance on hospital Emergency Departments, with additional support and signposting from NHS 111 and primary care.
This will mean shorter waits for people who require urgent same day care, a better patient experience and improved care outcomes for all. It will also help ensure our Emergency Departments are focusing on those patients who are critically ill, instead of treating injuries that are more minor that could be seen at a UTC.
These changes respond to the ambitions set out in NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Recovery Plan and wider plans to ensure patients can access a range of early intervention services outside acute hospitals (for unplanned, urgent care), which will reduce unnecessary attendances at hospital emergency departments and help protect those services for those who really need them.
The re-design in Surrey Heartlands is predicted to see a 25 per cent increase in patients across all sites with UTCs expected to be open longer hours, have more consistent investigative and diagnostic services on site with multi-disciplinary teams that can see both booked and walk in patients.
From 1 April, the public won’t necessarily see an immediate change in services provided at each site, these will be developed over a period of time and communicated locally. NHS 111 will support the change via signposting patients to the right facility with the ability to offer booked appointments where appropriate.