Urgent care is not a service unique to the United States of America. Other countries such as England have urgent care facilities as well, working on practically the same basic principles of convenient and less costly alternative care. While systems do differ from area to area, they are intrinsically the same, sharing similar issues and concerns. Caroline Parkinson of BBC News recently published an article that discussed the need for the NHS to simplify urgent care in England as well as other issues.
The basic idea of the article is that there is a need for a simpler system bringing together urgent and emergency care in the country. This is to avoid confusion as well as help residents know where they should get medical help and to have confidence in whatever service they receive. In her article, Parkinson said, “The fragmentation and diverse nomenclature of urgent care services across England causes confusion amongst patients and healthcare professionals in terms of services offered. This can lead to patients presenting at services that may not best suit their needs.”
Parkinson adds that there is an increasing reliance on telephone advice. But the report warns that some patients lack confidence in such care and says they will often seek a second opinion anyway, leading to a duplication of service provision. Other issues identified include a lack of patient-awareness about the care which community pharmacists can provide, and the need for senior staff to be on duty more of the time, like on weekends.
Although there are many differences between how urgent care is handled by one country from another, the common concerns are the same no matter where you reside. Thankfully, many people do understand that non-life-threatening ailments can be seen at urgent care centers, and life-threatening issues are best to be seen in an ER.
Whether it’s West Sacramento urgent care or any other place in the world, people need to have confidence in the treatment that they are getting. There should be as little confusion as possible as to where patients should go for certain conditions, and the reasons for going to one place or another—the different pros and cons—should be clearly defined.
A West Sacramento walk-in clinic may be an entirely different place from those in England, but the commitment to great, reliable service should be the same. With trusted urgent care centers such as the U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group and others, that shouldn’t be hard to find.
U.S. HealthWorks West Sacramento 