Eastham Walk In Centre

This assessment was carried out on 16, 18 and 30 September 2025. Eastham Walk in Centre is located at 31 Eastham Rake, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH62 9AN. The registered provider for the service is Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust. The centre delivers services to approximately 14,700 people per year. The service is open every day from 12pm to 8pm.

The purpose of the Walk in Centre is to provide same day assessment and treatment for patients with range of minor injuries and or non-routine medical problems. The service is designed to see and treat patients who do not require emergency care, to reduce pressures on the Emergency Department (ED or AE). People accessed the service as a walk-in-patient. Examples of conditions or illnesses treated at the centre included: minor cuts, wounds or scalds, minor head injury, bites and stings, coughs, colds, ear infections, rashes and allergic reactions, urine infections, ear and throat infections, eye injuries and infections, muscle or joint injuries (e.g. sprains and strains), childhood illnesses (e.g. croup and bronchiolitis), mild abdominal pain, emergency contraception, wound review and dressing and removal of sutures.

The service is delivered predominantly by a team of nurses with support from a team of non-clinical staff. The team includes nurse prescribers, nurses and health care assistants. GPs are available to support the clinical decision making or to refer people to. The GPs are based in other locations within the trust wide urgent treatment centre services. The service is supported by a centre and trust wide management team.

This was the first comprehensive assessment for this service as a location registered with CQC. However, some aspects of the service were inspected in 2018 as part of a wider inspection of the trust.

We assessed all five key questions to establish if the services provided are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. We rated the safe, responsive and well-led key questions as requires improvement. We rated the effective and caring key questions as good. The service is rated requires improvement overall.

The management of incidents and governance linked to this was not fully effective. The provider did not always demonstrate that safety events were investigated appropriately and timely. Lessons learnt were not always shared effectively or timely to prevent a recurrence and embed good practice.

Staff told us they worked well as a team to provide a high quality and caring service to patients. However, they told us that staff shortages were making it difficult to maintain patient safety. Feedback from staff was largely negative, particularly in relation to staffing and training and they told us they did not feel listened to or that their concerns were being acted upon.

There was a process to identify, monitor and address current risks including risks that could relate to patient safety. For example, staff shortages and the impact of this upon staff training. However, timely action had not been taken to mitigate these.

Structures, processes and systems to support governance and management were clearly set out at a leadership level but there was a level of disconnect between managers/leaders and staff who were working at the centre.

People could access the service easily and quickly so that they got the support and treatment they needed when they needed it. The service had a triage system in place to facilitate prioritisation according to clinical need where people with more serious conditions or young children could be prioritised as they arrived.

The provider used data to inform, monitor and improve performance. Key performance indicators for the number of patients triaged within 15 minutes was running at an average of 43% between January and August 2025 and 94% of people who used the service were assessed and treated within a 4-hour timeframe.

Support was available for people with additional needs or communication needs. For example, people who required the services of an interpreter or people who had a learning disability or autistic people.

The provider worked collaboratively and in partnership with relevant external stakeholders, commissioners and partner agencies to provide and develop services.