Herts Urgent Care (HUC) provides out-of-hours General Practitioner (GP) services for more than 1.2 million patients living across Hertfordshire. It is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely and the treatment of disease, disorder and injury.
We carried out the inspection as part of our new inspection programme to test our approach going forward. It took place with a team that included three CQC inspectors, a GP, a GP practice manager, a nurse and an expert-by-experience.
We found the service was effective in meeting patients needs and had taken positive steps to ensure people who may have difficulty in accessing services were enabled to do so. There was an emphasis on involving groups of patients that had been considered to be hard to reach and engage, for example, people with a learning disability.
Patients told us that they were happy with the care and treatment they received and felt safe. There were systems in place to help ensure patient safety through learning from incidents, the safe management of medicines and infection prevention and control.
The provider had taken steps to ensure that all staff underwent a thorough recruitment and induction process to help ensure their suitability to care for patients.
Patients experienced care that was delivered by dedicated and caring staff. Patients and carers we spoke with said staff displayed a kind and caring attitude and we observed patients being treated with respect and kindness whilst their dignity and confidentiality was maintained.
We found that the service was well-led and managed by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable senior management team and board of directors, and their values and behaviours were shared by staff. Members of the staff team we spoke with all held very positive views of the management and leadership and felt well supported in their roles. They told us the senior managers were approachable and listened to any concerns or suggestions they might have to improve the level of service provided to patients.