DHU's Derbyshire Urgent Care Out of Hours Services awarded 'Outstanding' rating

DHU Healthcare’s Chesterfield based Urgent Care North out of hours service has been listed as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission following its most recent inspection.

Based at Ashgate Manor, the service treats and cares for patients referred through DHU’s own 111 service based on the symptoms they describe, receiving an appointment at one of seven Primary Care Centres in the region or a home visit, depending on the needs of the individual patient.

Following a three-day visit from assessors in October 2023, the CQC rated DHU’s service as ‘Outstanding’ in terms of providing an effective, caring, responsive and well-led service for patients, ‘Good’ in terms of a safe service and ‘Outstanding’ overall.

Paul Tilson is DHU’s Managing Director of Urgent Care, he said: “This is a tremendous achievement for everybody associated with our urgent care services and I am delighted that the award reflects the dedication and care we put into this service. We pride ourselves on delivering compassionate, quality, respectful and comprehensive care and advice to our patients, their carers and families who we hope were already confident in the service we deliver for them.

“My gratitude and respect goes to all of my colleagues who work tirelessly with each other and in collaboration with our health partners and patients to ensure our services are of the highest quality and easily accessible to those who needs them. Every patient is different and unique which is why listening to them and understanding their needs is key to making absolutely certain that the care we give is right, and that means working with system partners across the county.

“I’m so proud of the team but we all know that the hard work must continue. Our aim is always to maintain and improve this service, to carry on doing what we do well, whilst building on the professional excellence and experience of our people to continue to innovate and adapt to our patients’ evolving needs.”

CQC assessors spent three days assessing and reviewing the sites covered by DHU’s out of hours service at Ashgate Manor in Chesterfield, Buxton Hospital, Clay Cross Hospital, New Mills Health Centre, St Oswald’s Hospital in Ashbourne, Castle Street Medical Centre in Bolsover and Whitworth Hospital in Matlock. The service also includes the North Derbyshire based GP Out of Hours Service, Community Nursing Services and the co-located Primary and Urgent Care Service co-located within the Emergency Department at Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

They inspected the clinical environments, spoke to staff and patients and observed the services in action to confirm on 27th December that the services delivered to patients by DHU Healthcare are ‘Outstanding’.

Kirsty Osborn is DHU’s Deputy Director of Urgent Care North, she added: “What was particularly pleasing were the things that the CQC highlighted as specifically impressive. Elements we are proud of such as addressing health inequalities and demonstrating positive health impacts on under-represented groups, our extensive and close working relationships with health partners, the continually positive patient feedback and the support we provide for our people. These are all things that have become embedded into how we work and an essential part of DHU’s vision and values.

“We were also praised for how we learn and react to occasions when things don’t go so well which is why we will be giving prominence to areas the CQC mentioned as areas for improvement. We are very much aware that our Urgent Care South services are likely to be inspected soon so we will be looking to take some of those lessons, examples of our own good practice and our colleagues’ collective brilliance into those areas to ensure we achieve a similar result.

“It’s not so much about preparation, it’s more about ensuring a consistently outstanding approach across the whole of Derbyshire and the East Midlands, replicating the same standards. We are confident that by continuing our approach to achieving the high standards we have set ourselves, we can provide a consistency of service across the whole region to give our people the best environment within which to provide our patients with compassionate, quality care.”

DHU Healthcare is now proud to hold ‘Outstanding’ CQC ratings for the Urgent Care North out of hours and its 111 service that covers 92% of the Midlands region.