A temporary change to the opening hours at Crawley Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) has been agreed to ensure the service can continue to operate safely and deliver high quality care to patients.
From 20 May, Crawley UTC will be open seven days a week from 7.30am to 10pm.
The decision to pilot this temporary change in the opening hours from 24/7 has been made to ensure that safe staffing levels can continue to be maintained.
During opening hours, the Crawley UTC will continue to deliver the full range of services currently available.
Whilst arrangements have been in place to utilise temporary staffing, this is not providing adequate cover and is not sustainable. Putting in place this pilot arrangement will allow us to reallocate overnight staff into the daytime when the unit sees the most patients. It will mean that we have more staff available when patients need the service most as we consider how we can meet the needs of the local community for the longer term.
Data shows that the majority of patients attend Crawley UTC between 7.30am and 10pm with an average of two patients per hour using the service overnight.
In the month of February the service supported 5,649 patients, and we recognise it has an important role to ensure that people can get urgent NHS help and treatment.
Urgent Treatment Centres are an important pathway within urgent and emergency care and this temporary change is required so we can make sure the unit can continue to operate safely and provide a high level of care to the people of Crawley.
Our team will be continuously monitoring the number of patients attending the unit, as well as their reason for attending across the next six months so we can ensure we are there when our patients need us. We will also monitor wider impacts within the health and care system and work alongside our partners to ensure this move enhances safe urgent care for the local community.
The UTC will continue to provide its full range of urgent care services for injuries and illnesses that are not life threatening between 7.30am and 10pm during this period. This includes sprains and strains, broken bones, minor burns and scalds, minor head and eye injuries, bites and stings.
We encourage people to continue to use the UTC during its operating hours so that they can receive urgent NHS help and support closer to home.
Overnight, the public will be advised to use alternative services such as NHS 111, or in life-threatening emergencies, continue to access emergency departments.
For those requiring life-saving care, emergency departments are available at:
- East Surrey Hospital, Redhill
- Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath
- Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton & Hove
- Worthing Hospital
- St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester
