What does urgent care mean to me?

This report was produced by Healthwatch Newcastle and Healthwatch Gateshead to understand how members of the public define an “urgent” health problem and how quickly they expect to be seen by a health professional in such circumstances. The findings were intended to inform Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group’s review of urgent and emergency care services. 

A survey was conducted during 2016 and completed by 307 people. Respondents were asked how quickly they would expect to be seen by a health professional if they, their child under five, or a vulnerable friend or relative had an urgent health problem. 

The survey found that the vast majority of respondents expected urgent health problems to be dealt with within two hours. Almost 80% expected to be seen within two hours overall, rising to over 90% when the urgent problem concerned a young child and over 85% when it concerned a vulnerable relative or friend. Even for their own urgent health problems, more than 63% of respondents expected to be seen within two hours.

The findings showed some geographical differences. Residents of Gateshead generally expected to be seen more quickly than residents of Newcastle, with over 90% of Gateshead respondents expecting a young child or vulnerable relative to be seen within two hours. 

Analysis by age found little variation in Newcastle, but in Gateshead older respondents tended to expect faster access to care than younger respondents. However, the report notes that the larger Gateshead sample size may have influenced this finding. 

There were no significant differences between male and female respondents. Women showed slightly higher expectations for prompt treatment of young children, while men showed slightly higher expectations for vulnerable relatives or friends, but overall expectations were very similar.

The analysis of ethnicity and postcode did not reveal any clear or reliable patterns. Small sample sizes within many ethnic and postcode groups meant that meaningful conclusions could not be drawn. 

A key finding from discussions with respondents was that many people were unclear about the meaning of the term “urgent.” Some participants interpreted urgent problems as serious emergencies, such as strokes, suggesting confusion between urgent care and emergency care. 

The report concludes that most people expect to receive care within two hours for what they consider to be an urgent health problem. It recommends that the CCG use these findings when reviewing urgent and emergency care pathways, work to clarify the meaning of “urgent” for the public, and continue public engagement and education about appropriate use of services such as NHS 111 and emergency departments.