'Urgent treatment centre a great place to get well'

A woman has praised an urgent treatment centre (UTC) after it discovered she had a heart condition.

Staff at the Corby UTC in Northamptonshire realised what was wrong with Christine Baaki, 55, last year.

Not-for-profit company DHU Healthcare took over the centre in November. It said it had since treated nearly 18,000 patients who might otherwise have gone to A&E.

Asthma sufferer Baaki said the longest she has had to wait for treatment at the UTC was two hours, adding: "It's a great place to get well."

A previous visit to the UTC discovered a heart condition, which other doctors had been unable to diagnose, she said.

"I have PAH (pulmonary arterial hypertension), which is a heart condition, and it's here that last year they found that I had it," she said, adding she is now receiving care from a specialist heart hospital.

Baaki, who lives near Northampton, said she preferred to drive an hour to seek help from the UTC over visiting her nearest A&E department.

Previously she has had to wait for up to 14 hours for treatment at A&E, she said.

"It's too long and you're picking up bugs and I'm vulnerable," she said.

Corby UTC is not for patients in need of routine GP appointments or emergency help, explained advanced clinical practitioner Rob Bradley.

"We're for urgent treatment, anything from sore throats, chest infections," he said.

"We do have the facilities to take blood, including things like a D-dimer test, which will help to rule out a blood clot and troponin, which will help to rule out a heart attack; we've got X-ray facilities; we can plaster as well."

On arrival, patients are allocated a time to see a clinician and if there is a bit of a wait, they can leave and return at their appointment time, he said.

Bradley worked at Kettering General Hospital's A&E department for 13 years before joining the UTC and said it felt a "much more efficient" way of treating patients.

He said: "Another amazing thing [about the UTC], if you call [non-emergency NHS number] 111, they can book you an appointment, give you a time to come in and you should be seen within 10 to 15 minutes of that appointment."

The centre treated 9,070 patients in December, up from 8,674 in November, according to DHU Healthcare.

Asun Valle, clinical services lead, said: "We can see from 250 patients to close to 400 patients a day.

"Winter is always a bit more difficult because of the respiratory illness, flu has an impact... also a couple of weeks ago, we had a bit of snow and ice, people fall more, break bones."

She added: "Imagine if each county had an urgent treatment centre, where they can do point-of-care testing, X-rays - it would certainly help to release the pressure from the A&Es."

Jeremy Lane, 72, had travelled from Market Harborough for treatment, after injuring his hand tripping on a paving slab the previous day.

If he had sought help from A&E, his nearest department was at Kettering General Hospital, he said.

"This is a lot quicker, a lot more efficient," he said.

Within an hour and a half he had been seen, and was referred directly to an orthopaedic department for further treatment of a dislocated carpometacarpal joint.

Lane said: "I think there ought to be more of them in towns, especially with the growth of houses and the population growing everywhere, so I think it's a good idea."

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