Urgent Treatment Centre

The local NHS team has set up the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) based within the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. The service is supported by local GP practices, IC24 (who provide the Out of Hours service) and staff at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.

The service is located at the William Harvey Hospital and it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Urgent Treatment Centres are GP-led, open 24 hours a day at the main hospitals in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate, 7 days a week including Bank Holidays. They offer appointments that can be booked through 111 or through a GP referral, and are equipped to diagnose and deal with many of the most common urgent conditions that people might otherwise have attended A&E for.

The service can help you with:

Examples of the types of injuries or illness suitable for a UTC include:

Strains and sprains	Skin infections and rashes
Eye problems	Coughs and colds
Feverish illness in adult’s	Feverish illness in children
Abdominal pain	Vomiting and diarrhoea
Emergency contraception	Suspected broken limbs
Minor head injuries	Cuts and grazes
Bites and stings	Minor scalds and burns
Ear and throat infections

The benefits for patients are?

Preventing long waits in Accident and Emergency Departments
Patients receive the right care from the right clinician, improving patient care and reducing pressure at A&E
So the Emergency Department (ED) is able to focus on patients who are acutely unwell with potentially life threatening injuries or illnesses

Keeping services COVID secure means:

Patients who ‘walk-in’ without an appointment will have a clinical assessment conducted within 15 minutes of arrival. After initial assessment patients may be:

Seen if they urgently need to be
asked to come back at an appointment time to help the UTC observe social distancing guidelines and keep patients and staff safe redirected to a more appropriate service

How is this different to the current service in Ashford?

The national standards guidance means there is more consistent care, and improved access for everyone; offering help with both minor injury and illness and making best use of our local GPs, and NHS staff to support patients.

As a result the previous minor injury service (MIU) delivered by some practices along with the rural weekend service (Hamstreet, Tenterden, Woodchurch and Charing) will no longer be provided from 31 October 2020.

You can still call your GP during working hours for advice. Your practice may direct you to the UTC for support.

If you are not sure who to contact, the best thing is to call NHS 111 so they can assess you and make sure you are cared for by the right service.

Where are the Urgent Treatment centres across East Kent?

Area	Site	Open
Ashford	William Harvey Hospital	24 hours
Margate	Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital	24 hours
Canterbury	Kent and Canterbury Hospital	24 hours
Folkestone	Royal Victoria Hospital	8 -8pm
Dover	Buckland Hospital	8 -8pm
Deal	Victoria Memorial Hospital	8 -8pm
Herne Bay	Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital	8 -8pm
Faversham	Faversham Medical Practice	8 -8pm
Whitstable	Estuary View Medical Centre	8 -8pm