Enter and View: Walk in Centre, Finchley Memorial Hospital, Barnet

Healthwatch Barnet conducted an Enter and View on the Walk in Centre, Finchley Memorial Hospital, Barnet. The visits were conducted on 24th August 2016 and 29th August 2016. The service is run by CLCH (Central London Community Healthcare). The building is managed by the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) initiative (Community Health Partnerships).

The visit was arranged as part of Healthwatch Barnet's enter and view schedule.

There are 3 services offered at this location: X-ray, Walk in Centre and GP Out of Hours service. There is also a pharmacy and cafe.

Observation by the enter and view representatives reported that:

Internal and external signage were confusing and not helpful. The reception desk served all 3 services and privacy was considered an issue.

Waiting area: Signs were poorly placed and out of date. The room was quite warm and no through draft. Drinking water and snacks were avaiable from machines. Toilets were clean and Wifi was available (password not clearly signposted). Information leaflets were available at reception.

Attendance: The following reasons were given for attending the walk in centre:

a) Too long a wait for GP appointment.

b) Not registered with a GP.

c) Student at home on vacation who had been deregistered so was unable to attend his family GP.

d)Sent by GP to have dressings changed.

Car parking was adequate and free of charge for first 3 hours - no public transport available nearby.

The following recommendations were made:

1) Signage

a) External: The signage from the major routes (Ballards Lane (A598) and High Road(A1000)) was poor or non-existent. Large directional signs indicating the way to the WiC should be located at the junction of Granville Road to both these roads. The entrance to the site should also be clearly indicated on Granville Road.

b) The payment machines in the car park should be more clearly indicated.

c) Internal: The location of the main entrance to the WiC needs to be more clearly indicated from the car park,as does the way from the main entrance to the WiC reception.

d) Signage internally that is not in use, eg GP Reception, should be removed to avoid confusion

2) Information

a) The screens in the waiting area that were showing information on a loop should be re-sited to make them more visible.

b) It was felt that the patients were not given much information about the process and that a leaflet explaining the process would help relieve some of the frustration felt by patients who sawindividuals who arrived after them going in for treatment ahead of them.

c) Noticeboards should either be kept up to date with correct information displayed, or kept blank.

d)Training. The reception staff had been trained in how to deal with aggression and stated that this helped in dealing with dissatisfied clients. It was noted that training in dealing with individuals with a hearing or sight impairment was not given. This training is available and should be made available to ALL staff who work at reception. Staff were aware, and did use an online translation service ‘language line’ for non-English speakers.

e) To consider introducing a way of allowing those unable to stand for any length of time to be seated whilst waiting in the queue for the reception desk.

f) To ensure that the services offered by the pharmacy are clearly advertised to make sure that patients are aware of this as an alternative source of treatment.

A response was received from the provider in which they stated they would address the recommendations and make inprovements in the future.