Consultations
Give your views about urgent care in Bolton
A main priority for Bolton Health Consortium and Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is to make sure people in Bolton are treated by the right person, at the right place, at the right time.
Recent survey results and feedback from doctors and nurses have told us that people are often confused about how to use urgent care services in Bolton and, as such, are not getting the most appropriate care.
Urgent care services are unplanned and used by people who need to see a clinician straight away. For example, this could be urgent treatment or advice from a GP, accident and emergency (A&E) or walk-in centre. The care might be during the day time or out-of-hours, such as in the evening, night time, or at the weekend.
Services need to change. Bolton Hospital has one of the busiest A&E departments in the north west. Many thousands of people who visit A&E each year go with minor illnesses and injuries that could be treated elsewhere by a nurse, a GP or a pharmacist.
Visits to A&E cost a lot of money and sometimes means those with more serious conditions are not being treated at quickly as possible.
A walk-in centre was opened in the town centre at Lever Chambers in 2003 to take away some of the pressure on Bolton’s A&E department. Since then, GP surgeries have also introduced longer opening hours. This, along with the rise in people using the walk-in centre, has not reduced A&E attendances.
We’ve found that many people who use the walk-in-centre could have cared for themselves or visited their GP. Your GP is the best person to contact first for urgent care as they hold your health records and can decide the care you need.
We believe that having so many different places for urgent care causes problems. People have told us they are not clear which service to use for different illnesses. This often leads to wasted time and safety issues caused by people being redirected to the right place.
With this in mind, the NHS in Bolton is working with Bolton Council, NHS staff and the public to develop a proposal to provide safe, cost-effective and better managed urgent care services that makes sure patients get the most suitable care. Any money saved will be reinvested in other healthcare in the borough.
We are only thinking about changing services you would access if you have a minor illness or injury requiring treatment or advice. Accident and emergency services will remain the same.
We’d really like to hear your views on the future of urgent care services. All responses will be treated in strict confidence. Please take five minutes to fill in this web survey www.surveymonkey.com/s/JS5HN39 by 20 December 2011.
The outcome of this engagement will be available on our website at www.bolton.nhs.uk/your-pct/consultations/consultations.asp in March 2012.
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