During an assessment under our new approach
This assessment was carried out on 7 and 8 May 2025. St Helens Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) is located at Corporation Street, St Helens WA10 1HJ. The UTC provides a minor illness and minor injury service to people living in the locality. The registered provider for the service is Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The centre delivered services to approximately 50,000 people per year.
The UTC is open from 7am to 10pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 10pm on Sundays. (Patients can be booked in up until 9:15pm). A GP is available on-site Monday to Friday, 11am to 8pm, in addition to nursing staff.
The service is delivered by a multidisciplinary team of clinical and non-clinical staff. The team includes GPs, advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs), senior nurse practitioners and health care assistants. They are supported by a UTC and Trust wide management team. The service is designed to see and treat patients who do not require emergency care, to reduce pressures on the accident and emergency (AE) department and reduce hospital admissions. Patients could access the service either as a walk in-patient, via the NHS 111 service or by referral from a healthcare professional.
The purpose of the UTC is to provide same day assessment and treatment for patients with range of minor injuries and or non-routine medical problems.
Conditions or illnesses treated at the centre included: minor cuts and wounds, minor head injury, minor burns or scalds, bites and stings, suspected simple fractures, coughs, colds and sore throats, ear infections, skin rashes and allergic reactions, urine infections, ear and throat infections, eye injuries and infections, muscle or joint injuries (e.g. sprains and strains), childhood illnesses (e.g. croup and bronchiolitis), mild abdominal pain, emergency contraception, wound review and removal of sutures.
We assessed all five key questions to establish if the services provided were safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. We rated all key questions as good and the service is rated good overall.
Leaders and staff prioritised safety, openness and joint working. Safety events were investigated, and lessons were learnt to identify any shortfalls, prevent a recurrence, and embed good practice.
There was an effective process to identify, understand, monitor and address current and future risks including risks to patient safety.
The service had a triage system in place to facilitate prioritisation according to clinical need where more serious cases or young children could be prioritised as they arrived.
People could access the service easily and quickly so that they got the support and treatment they needed when they needed it.
The provider used data to inform, monitor and improve performance. Data indicated good outcomes for people who used the service with figures showing improvement in the achievement of key performance indicators for the number of patients triaged within 15 minutes and being assessed, treated and discharged within 2 hour and 4 hour timeframes.
The culture and ethos of the service was to provide a high level of patient satisfaction, and this was evident across all areas of our assessment. Staff told us they worked well as a team to provide a high quality and caring service to patients.
Support was available for people with additional needs or communication needs. For example, people who required the services of an interpreter or patients who had a learning disability.
Structures, processes and systems to support good governance and management were clearly set out, understood and effective.
All staff we spoke with were clear on their individual roles and responsibilities and lines of accountability were clear. Managers met with staff regularly to complete appraisals and performance reviews.
The provider worked collaboratively and in partnership with relevant external stakeholders, commissioners and partner agencies to provide and develop services.