Urgent and Emergency Care Centre
The Urgent and Emergency Care Centre (UECC) provides care for those who need urgent medical attention.
The department provides clinical care to people of any age for a range of problems, from life-threatening conditions to injury and illness.
An urgent care need is something which needs immediate care but isn’t life or limb threatening.
An emergency care need is something which is life or limb threatening. This can include things like choking, severe bleeding, chest pains and blacking out.
Urgent and Emergency Care Centre
Rotherham Hospital
Moorgate Road
Rotherham
S60 2UD
01709 424455
Open 24 hours
Attending the UECC
If you attend our UECC, you will be asked to use the NHS 111 self-assessment screens. These screens help us to ensure patients are in the right place for their care needs.
You will also be assessed at the front door by our team of clinicians. They will place you into one of our 'streams' based on what care you need and help us to ensure patients are seen by the most suitable clinician.
For all streams, we see patients in priority order. This means that you may be waiting longer than others who need more urgent attention.
If your condition does not require urgent treatment, you will be signposted to an alternative service such as your GP, pharmacist or other community care provision.
UECC myth
Arriving by ambulance means you are seen more quickly.
This isn't true.
Patients arriving by ambulance are triaged in exactly the same way as those who walk through the front door.
Triage
In Triage, an emergency department nurse will get an understanding of your reason for attending.
They will also undertake observations (for example, blood pressure), arrange for appropriate investigations (such as blood tests) and decide which clinician you should see (such as a doctor or advanced nurse practitioner).
Emergency care (Majors)
The emergency care stream (sometimes called majors) is for urgent conditions that are not suitable for any other streams (for instance, heart attacks, strokes, etc).
Patients will be put on priority code and seen by an appropriate emergency department clinician.
Urgent primary care
This stream is for those who need urgent access to general practice services. This can include things such as broken bones, burns and scalds, wounds and minor illnesses including fever, infections and rashes which cannot wait until your own general practice (GP) opens.
It runs from 8am to 10pm daily.
When urgent primary care closes, GP out of hours becomes operational. This can be accessed through NHS 111.
Minor injuries
This is for injuries that are not critical or life-threatening.
In this stream, we treat injuries such as broken bones, sprains, wounds, burns and scolds, and minor head injuries.
Paediatrics
Our paediatric department treats patients from 0 to 18 years of age.
Patients are seen by a triage nurse and put in the relevant stream between minors, emergency care and urgent primary care.