Talking to even more patients at the walk in centre on Ritchie Street
The Health and Care Scrutiny Committee asked for more information on how changes to the way urgent appointments are accessed would affect patients currently using the walk in centre.
We published our first report on urgent and same day GP services in October 2018. We were asked if we could go back and speak to more patients at the walk in centre on Ritchie Street. We spoke to 80 more patients from Islington over six visits in November and December.
What we learned this time
- People using the service valued it. They appreciated being seen when they felt they needed to be seen and generally their issue was resolved by the visit.
- The majority of people using the service were registered with a GP.
- Large numbers of the patients using the service were registered at the Ritchie Street practice, which is based within the same building as the walk in centre.
- Patient flow seemed fairly unpredictable, with the service very busy at some times and not very busy at others.
- There was some frustration about the capacity of the service.
- There was limited awareness of other local services that may meet similar needs.
To complement this work we held a focus group with Deaf patients, as well as investigating how easy it was to register at a local GP.
