The Haywood Walk-In Centre

The Haywood WIC is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year and aims to allow patients access to services outside of normal working hours.  It is a Nurse-led service only; we have no Medical staff working in the department.  The opening hours are 7am-10pm Mon-Friday and 9am-10pm at weekends and on Bank Holidays.  No appointment is necessary.
 
The service is for those patients presenting with a minor injury or a minor ailment. These include sprains, minor fractures, burns, abrasions/wounds, removal of foreign bodies from the eye/ear/vagina, wounds, simple head injuries, flu-like symptoms, colds, etc etc.  We also see children with minor rashes, ear infections, sore throats, minor cough, diarrhoea & vomiting and fevers.
We do not offer chronic illness management and we are unable to request investigations such as CT/MRI scans or routine blood tests .
 
Unwell patients with chest pain or breathing problems should not attend the Walk in Centre. 
 
We offer an Emergency contraception service and we run the DVT service for North Staffs & Stoke.  We also hold our own Fracture clinic which is led by Dr John Gilby 3 times per week.  
 
We have an X-Ray facility available from 8.30am-6pm Monday to Friday and 10am-2pm each weekend and on Bank Holidays.  Nurse Practitioners are able to request X-rays for those patients who've had a recent injury and we are only able to X-Ray upper and lower limbs.  We are not authorised to X-Ray chests, abdomens, hips, backs or skulls.    
 
Our Practitioners are able to suture wounds and plaster limbs and apply all of the minor injury treatments.  We have 9 Nurse Prescribers within the department.  We do not operate a dressings clinic. 

The general wait time often depends on the time of day and general volume of patients but it is usually around 40 minutes to see the Triage Nurse. The total visit time is generally 1.5-3 hours dependant on the presentation.