We decided to visit the Minor Injuries Unit on a Saturday to gain a wider view of the service provided. This was part of an out of normal hours pilot project being undertaken in the North East region. During the inspection we focused on services provided in the Minor Injuries Unit.

With three patients’ permission we followed their experience (pathway tracked) when they attended the Minor Injuries Unit and looked at the clinical records of two other patients. We found that patients’ needs were assessed and treatment was appropriately provided. We saw that nurse practitioners were adept in assessing patients; making relevant diagnosis; and providing treatment.

When speaking to patients they told us that the nurse practitioners were “brilliant”. Patients and relatives told us that they found the staff to be respectful, professional and treated them at all times with dignity and empathy.

We found that the staffing levels were sufficient and that patients were offered treatment and advice in a timely way. We also saw that there was appropriate skill mix; staff had the appropriate qualifications; and there was evidence of staff completing continuous professional development.

We saw that the Trust had effective systems in place to monitor the quality of service and delivery of service at the Minor Injuries Unit.

One Life Hartlepool provides a 24-hour minor injuries service. This was inspected as part of the acute urgent and emergency care service and the outcome is reported here. The centre also provides a number of community services including speech and language therapy, audiology, podiatry, musculoskeletal and diabetes services. We reported on these services in the community adult services inspection report for the trust.

The trust gained foundation status in 2007. It has a workforce of approximately 5500 staff and serves a population of around 400,000 in Hartlepool, Stockton and parts of County Durham. The trust also provides services in a number of community facilities across the areas supported, including Peterlee Community Hospital and the One Life Hartlepool.

We inspected One Life Hartlepool as part of the comprehensive inspection of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, which included this centre and community services. We inspected One Life Hartlepool on 7-10 July.

Overall, we rated One Life Hartlepool as good. We rated it as good for safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services.

We rated emergency and urgent care as good.

Our key findings were as follows:

• We found the minor injuries department to be very clean and equipment was well maintained.
• In the last twelve months, the trust reported that there had been no incidents of MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) or clostridium difficile in the minor injuries unit.
• Patients were able to access suitable nutrition and hydration. For relatives and carers, sandwiches and drinks were available from vending machines and water from water fountains.
• There were sufficient staff deployed to the unit to manage the volume of patients attending.

However, there were also areas of practice where the service needs to make improvements.

Importantly, the service should:

• Consider reviewing the trust process for prescribing antibiotics in the Minor Injuries Unit to enable them to be prescribed after 10pm when only one qualified nurse is on duty.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals