Widnes Urgent Treatment Centre - Patient Feedback Report

This is a report by Healthwatch Halton. It looks at Urgent Treatment Centres.

Healthwatch Halton carried out five visits to the Widnes UTC between 18 October 2023 and 27 March 2024.

The UTC is located within the Widnes Health Care Resource Centre, Caldwell Road, Oaks Place, Widnes, Cheshire.

Each visit lasted between two and three hours and in total 98 people took the time to give us their experience. We used a two-part questionnaire to gather the views of patients. Part One covered their experiences prior to triage and treatment. Part Two was to be completed once the patient had been treated and discharged.

The information in this report gives a snapshot of the experiences of people attending the Widnes Urgent Treatment Centre during our visits. 

• The results and feedback show that the UTC offers an excellent alternative for patients who feel they need same day treatment and may have visited A&E instead if there wasn’t a local UTC available. 
• It supports patients attending from Halton and further afield, many of whom have been unable to access suitable appointments with their own GP practices and see the UTC as a viable alternative for treatment.
• During our visits we observed staff treating patients with dignity and respect and being, friendly, helpful and courteous to patients, which is also reflected in the comments from patients taking part in our survey.
• The Widnes UTC service is generally well valued by the people using it, with 94% of patients likely to recommend the service to friends or family members.
• Patient satisfaction rates do tend to vary in line with how busy the service is and how long patients have to wait for treatment.

There are recommendations in this report. 

• Feedback highlighted a need for an improved way of keeping patients updated on waiting times.
• We recommend a review of the way patients are currently called in for triage or treatment.
• We recommend the installation of a water cooler, in line with the one provided at the Runcorn UTC.
• Several people were confused as to where they had to wait for an x-ray, and we had a number of patients ask us to point out the toilets. Improved signage from both entrances to the HCRC for these would be helpful.

There are no follow up actions in this report. However the provider has responded.