Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report concerning the visit to the Rotherham Community Health Centre by members of the Adult Services and Health Scrutiny Panel on 11^th March 2010. 

The £12m Rotherham Community Health Centre (RCHC), Greasborough Road, was developed by NHS Rotherham in order to provide patients with rapid access to a wide range of health services and is part of the delivery of the Better Health, Better Lives strategy. 

The Chair expressed her disappointment at the low numbers attending the visit and suggested that, in future, other similar visits at the request of the Panel would only go ahead if a minimum of six panel members were able to attend.

GP Surgery and Walk-In Service

Located within the centre is Chantry Bridge Medical Practice, which was operated by Care UK and opens on week days from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, offering a range of comprehensive services to registered patients.

Members of the Panel noted that the facility was extremely well used, with the GP surgery already having more than 200 patients registered, many of whom were newly arrived in Rotherham.

A major feature of the new centre was a Walk-in service for treating minor illnesses and injuries.  People are able to walk in without an appointment to see a GP or healthcare practitioner, whether registered at the practice or not, between 8.00 am and 9.00pm, seven days a week, including bank holidays.

The facilities available at the “Walk-in” were aimed at helping people with busy lifestyles who needed access to flexible and convenient health services.  It was designed to complement local GP and hospital services, to provide a range of treatments to members of the public when their GP practice was closed.

Staff can work flexibly across the GP and Walk-in services as need demands, and there have been event greater integration of the services from 28^th March 2010.

Diagnostic Centre

The Diagnostic Centre, which is also operated by Care UK, is part of a government initiative to provide additional, purpose built environments to efficiently and effectively meet the challenge of increasing access to healthcare in the UK.

It is open Monday to Saturday from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, including bank holidays, offering a range of diagnostic imaging procedures, X-ray, Ultrasound, Echocardiograms and MRI.

The centre does not currently have a plaster room so when minor breaks and fractures are diagnosed the patient would need to go to hospital for treatment.  The panel members recommended that a plaster room be commissioned for the centre, and this was to be considered.

Other Services

The centre also provided most of the primary care services that were based at Doncaster Gate Hospital.  These included:

• Ear care centre
• Speech ad Language therapy
• Community Physiotherapy
• Sexual Health
• Family Planning
• Phlebotomy
• Podiatry
• Specialist surgery suite (for use by GPs with Special Interests (GPSI) to perform treatments such as vasectomies)

The Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) Health Advice Centre and Community Dental had also moved to the new site.  The dental practice had expanded from two to five treatment rooms and was for people who found it difficult to access conventional services, such as children (and adults) with disabilities, high anxiety or learning disabilities.

A concern was raised about the waiting area for people attending the ear care service, in that there was no designated room for them and they were made to wait in the corridor.  It was felt that this should have been addressed at the planning stage of the building and a room made available.

A comment was made that the music being played in the reception area was so loud that it made it difficult for blind people and the hard of hearing to communicate.  Concerns were raised with the staff, but their response had been unhelpful.  Helen Watts, Assistant Director of External Relations confirmed that steps had been taken to address this problem and rectify the situation to the satisfaction of patients.

Resolved:- That the report be noted.