Healthcare centre’s initiative eases pressure on A&E

Company news

Jun 11, 2015

A PORTSMOUTH NHS healthcare centre is helping ease the pressure on local A&E services by providing hundreds of homeless people with a registered address.

The Guildhall Walk Healthcare Centre houses a GP practice with 5,600 registered patients and a walk-in centre which is accessed by more than 20,000 patients a year, registered or not. The centre, which is open every day of the year from 8am-8pm, is run on behalf of the local NHS by Portsmouth Health Ltd, which has sub-contracted Care UK, the country’s leading independent provider of health and social care, to operate the service on daily basis.

Since its opening six years ago, the centre has built an excellent reputation for particularly looking after the needs of the city’s homeless people, including ex-military personnel.

Kim Dennis, Service Manager at Guildhall Walk Healthcare Centre, said: “The centre looks after the health of the homeless population in the city. This population is transient and currently we have 118 patients registered using our address as their address. This enables the patients to access secondary care.

In the past the only access the homeless population had to secondary care was via A&E admissions. Some of the homeless will not register with a GP but use the healthcare centre to treat their minor health needs. This is a unique service and meets the health needs of this very vulnerable population which include ex-military personal, prison release patients, mental health patients released from large hospital environments and those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction.

“If a patient requires referral to secondary care the appointment letter is sent to Guildhall Walk addressed to the patient and we inform the patient to collect the letter. It works very well. We have attended Veterans Outreach Support and use this valuable service to refer the ex-forces patients too.”

Kevin Bristow, a support worker with the local Two Saints homeless society, said:

“The majority of clients I work with I bring to Guildhall Walk for registering and would just like to thank the staff there for not only the professional way in which they all conduct themselves but the personnel and caring way in which they treat each patient. My clients are mainly homeless and have underlying issues but are made to feel very welcome and treated with inclusion for the time they are there.”

The centre hosts the District Nursing Team at weekends and bank holidays to allow all patients in the city to have their dressings changed without the need to wait in for a district nurse to visit.

The centre also actively promotes safe sexual health and provides free condoms to all. It is the second highest screener of Chlamydia in the city.