ACP MSK workforce deployed into East Lancashire Hospitals Urgent Care Centre (UCC)

Discussions with Lead/CD Consultant in EM and Lead Emergency medicine managers to highlight the untapped resource of Advanced practitioners in MSK Physiotherapy who had stopped all face to face work. Green light given to ask MSK service mangers about supporting the urgent care pathways with staffing re-deployment.

ACP Physiotherapist in UCC helped to coordinate training programme for the ACP MSK staff, prior to their transition into the new environment.

A four week supervision/buddy up system employed to help smooth the transition into the ED environment. The Lead UCC Physiotherapist was available to help manage any clinical pathway questions as a safety net using new IT systems and tech - such as VPN at home / MS teams / Sillo.

8 weeks in and now we are helping to staff the UCC 7 days a week across two sites from 8 am till 10 pm. We have up skilled one staff member to start to pick up wounds and lacerations and have another (ex UCC staff) now starting a suturing competency program, with the nursing and medical teams support.

We have had examples of patients been sent for urgent scanning due to specialist knowledge base that ACP staff hold - this has lead to an earlier diagnosis of serious spinal pathology in one case and safely ruled out cauda equina syndrome in another patient example.

Prior to starting this step change in staffing we have set up data sheets to help appropriate the impact and patient numbers this extra staffing has given us.