New urgent care centre opens to stem winter rush

A new urgent care treatment centre will help reduce waiting times for people with broken bones and infections, to stem the coming winter rush.

People coming into Yeovil Hospital will now be triaged by a nurse at the front door and then sent to the emergency department - or the new urgent treatment centre if the condition is not life-threatening.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said the new process will reduce waiting times for people who need urgent care.

Katy Sizer, emergency care service manager at the trust, said: "Every winter, all our acute hospitals have significant pressure so we just wanted to try something different to allow our patients to receive timely treatment."

Ms Sizer said people arriving at the hospital "won't notice a difference at all".

"The primary difference is the space. What we were given within this programme is a whole other part of the department so we can use our resource in a more efficient way," she added.

Dr Joby Kotoor, who works at the hospital, said waiting times are "quite high" and the urgent treatment centre will help to reduce it.

"Out triage system is quite robust. If the nurses have any concerns, they have a consultant they can discuss it with," Dr Kotoor added.

"The urgent care centre is not far away, so they can always bring patients back to the emergency centre if anything changes."