- SERVICE PROVIDER
Medway Community Healthcare C.I.C
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Assessment report published 28 August 2026
Contents
Ratings - Community urgent care service
Our view of the service
Medway Community Healthcare C.I.C Community urgent care service (UTC) is run by Medway Community Healthcare (MCH). MCH is a Community Interest Company (CIC) and a social enterprise that provides NHS-funded community services and is owned and controlled by its staff. As a social enterprise they are not-for-profit organisation and reinvest any surplus back into health and care services and the local community.
The UTC is located on the ground floor close to the emergency department at Medway Maritime hospital. Staff at the service provide care and treatment to people 11 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Medway Community Healthcare C.I.C also provides an out of hours service run at Sheppey Community Hospital. The site at Medway Maritime Hospital is a communication hub for district nurses, rapid response teams and other community and specialist teams which forms part of the urgent response team.
The service provides treatment for minor illnesses only. Services provided by the UTC include, but not limited to self-limiting conditions or infections such as ear, nose and throat infections, high temperature, fever and pains. The out of hours service is commissioned to assess and manage patients with symptoms of cellulitis or deep vein thrombosis.
Cellulitis and DVT pathways is contracted under Out of Hours provision and not UTC.
Patients attending the service are either referred by the NHS 111 service or streamed via the emergency department (ED) at Medway Maritime Hospital. ED Streaming is a clinical triage process used primarily in NHS hospitals to direct patients arriving at urgent care to the most appropriate service. The urgent treatment centre does not accept walk-in patients.
The service is registered to provide the following regulated activities:
• Treatment of diseases, disorder or injury and
• Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.
There are two registered managers.
We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
We carried out an unannounced assessment of Medway Community Healthcare CIC Urgent Treatment Centre on 7 and 8 October 2025. The service was last inspected on 22 February 2022. Following the inspection in 2022, the service was rated as requires improvement overall. We rated safe as inadequate, effective, responsive and well led as requires improvement and caring as good.
We carried out this assessment as a routine assessment using CQC’s new assessment methodology to determine whether the provider had made improvements since the last inspection, and that people were receiving safe care and treatment that met their needs. During this assessment we found that while the service had made some improvements, there were still areas of concern from the last inspection which had not been addressed.
We rated the service as Requires Improvement overall. We found 3 breaches of the regulations in relation to premises and equipment, infection prevention and control and governance.
• The provider did not ensure that the environment was safely managed and, that they were always aware of people present at the service to ensure that vulnerable people were always protected.
• The provider did not take all practicable steps to ensure that infection control risks were managed well. We saw that the environment including one of the consultation rooms were visibly dirty.
• The provider did not ensure that information on how to complain about the service was readily available to people visiting the service.
• The provider did not ensure that medicines were always stored properly and free from clutter.
• The providers governance processes were not robust enough to manage and remove all risks. There were risks on the providers risk register, with no clear action on how these would be addressed.
However,
• The service had enough staff with the right skills and experience to meet people’s needs. The service learned lessons from incidents.
• Staff worked hard to provide care and treatment that is person centred and, met people’s needs that met national best practice and standards.
• People reported that staff were generally kind and compassionate.
• Staff felt the culture was inclusive and leaders cared for their wellbeing. Leaders understood the service and the challenges they faced.
At the time of our inspection we raised our concerns with the local integrated care board (ICB) who informed us that they had arranged a meeting with both the acute hospital provider and Medway Community Healthcare CIC. The ICB told us that they were providing support to both providers so that our concerns could be addressed promptly. We also asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
We received mixed feedback about people's experience of the service. We spoke with 20 people using the service, including patients and their carers, who provided direct feedback about the care and support they received from the service. While most people felt that staff were compassionate, respectful, kind, and considerate, six patients said they had been waiting to be seen by a clinician for over two hours, but no staff member had checked on or provided any support for their pain.
Patients felt that they could overhear when reception staff took people’s confidential information. Patients reported that clinicians took time to interact with them and ease their anxieties. However, some patients and carers reported they were not always kept informed of what was going on while they waited. Patients reported the environment was in a poor state of repair, and the facilities were not clean and well maintained. Patients said if they needed to make a complaint, they would not know how to because there was no information on display.
Most patients reported that due to being unable to make appointments with their GPs, the service has been a lifesaver, and on most occasions, staff have been able to meet their needs and provided appropriate care and treatment.
The most recent friend and family test survey conducted between July and September 2025 showed that 38% of patients felt that their experience of the service was poor or very poor while 52% felt their experience was good or very good.