Queens Urgent Treatment Centre

Ratings

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

We carried out an announced assessment of Queens Urgent Treatment Centre from the 9 to 12 June 2025. We carried out this assessment to review the changes made at the previous assessment in June 2023, where the service was found in breach of regulation 12 safe care and treatment, regulation 17 good governance and regulation 18 safe staffing and was rated requires improvement overall and in four key questions. At this assessment we have reviewed all the key questions for safe, effective, responsive and well led.

Queens Urgent Treatment Centre (QUTC) is an urgent treatment service available to anyone living or working in Romford and the surrounding areas in the London Borough of Havering and Barking and Dagenham in North-East London. The service provides treatment of minor injuries and illnesses and provides an initial assessment (streaming) service in order that patients are transferred to the right service either within the Urgent Treatment Centre or elsewhere. The initial assessment (streaming) service is also the first point of contact for patients attending the emergency department of the hospital at which the centre is based. The service is co-located on one level within the emergency department of Queens Hospital based at Rom Valley Way, Romford, Essex, RM7 0AG and is accessible to those with limited mobility.

The urgent treatment centre is a 24/7 NHS service for patients who walk-in, self-refer, or are referred by the NHS 111 service.

The service is delivered by Partnership of East London Cooperatives (PELC) which is a not-for-profit social enterprise delivering NHS integrated urgent treatment services (including GP Out of Hours and Urgent Treatment Centres), to more than two million people across East London and West Essex.

PELC provides doctors and initial assessment (streaming) staff to the service. Other clinical staff are provided by North-East London NHS Foundation Trust who subcontract nurse and health care support worker staff to PELC. Most of the clinical staff working at the service for PELC are either self-employed, bank staff (those who are retained on a list by the provider) or agency staff.

At this assessment we found:

SAFE

We looked for evidence that people were protected from abuse and avoidable harm and found the service had made improvements and had responded to the findings of the previous assessment. This included staffing, clinical guardianship, and delays in referral to emergency care.

EFFECTIVE

We looked for evidence that staff provided patients with effective care and treatment, and advice and support. We found staff worked with other services to achieve this. Following the last assessment the service had made the necessary changes to improve the service.

RESPONSIVE

We looked for evidence that the service met people’s needs, and patients were able to easily access the service. We found at the previous assessment the service was not meeting its four-hour target as agreed with the commissioners to treat and discharge patients. At this assessment we found they were meeting and exceeding the target of 95%.

WELL LED

We looked for evidence that service leadership, management and governance assured high-quality, person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted an open culture. We found the leaders had improved the governance systems to provide oversight of staff competency and performance and developed patient engagement, with a patient representation on the Council.

Further commentary is provided in the quality statements section of this report.

People's experience of this service

PELC had engaged an independent patient survey in August 2024, this demonstrated improvements 94% of patients stated they had enough time to discuss their condition or symptoms with a member of staff, and 85% understood the explanation of their condition and treatment reached. In addition, 90% of patients reported staff listened to them, 82% had confidence and trust in the health professional and 55% stated their overall experience was good. In March 2025 patients completed 145 feedback cards, all stated they were either likely or very likely to recommend the service.