'Outstanding' In Effectiveness

St Helens Rota receives “Outstanding” mark for service Effectiveness in recent Care Quality Commission inspection. St Helens Rota provide “responsive and flexible services” according to the report, with descriptions including: “Staff treated patients with ‘understanding and kindness'”, “Staff were confident when dealing with patients who required support quickly”, “Patient safety was a priority to all staff”.

Welcome to St Helens Rota GP Federation

St Helens Rota is a ‘’not for profit’’ organisation and provides urgent medical services for patients who need to contact a clinician when their own surgery is closed and who’s needs cannot safely wait until the surgery is next open.

For an urgent appointment with a GP when your own surgery is closed please ring your GP practice telephone number and your call should be transferred automatically to St Helens Rota.

Quality Care With Convenience

St Helens Rota aims to be the safest organisation in the NHS through providing safe, clean and personal care to every patient, every time.  Our motto is “To care for and treat the patient in the right place without any unnecessary delay or discomfort by a responsible and empowered workforce”.

We are a provider of primary care services both in hours and out of hours. We are really proud to have some of the highest patient and staff satisfaction rates across GP Out of Hours services nationally.

Our Values

Providing a modern, innovative and high quality local service.

Providing care and treatment in the most appropriate location and without any unnecessary delay

Treating people with respect and involving them in their care

Caring for people safely and protecting them from harm

Our Services

St Helens Rota provide a GP out of hours service to the population of St Helens and part of Prescot.

This service operates Monday to Friday from 6.30 pm until 7.00am the following morning plus all weekend to 7.00am on Monday morning. During these hours patients should phone their own surgery number and they will be automatically transferred to St Helens Rota.

Depending on the circumstances, the patient will be offered an appointment at either Albion St Clinic or at our satellite clinic at Taylors pharmacy in Haydock, a home visit, or advice from the doctor over the telephone.

Details of all consultations are transmitted to the patient’s own surgery immediately.

The visiting hours are 10.00AM to 7:00pm, Monday to Friday.

St Helens GP’s are able to submit a request to the Acute Visiting Service (AVS) for an urgent visit that they are unable to make themselves and which could otherwise result in a hospital admission.

The Practice Receptionist will take all the relevant details and pass them through to the Practice Doctor.

The Doctor will make a clinical decision as to the urgency of the call, the needs of the patient and whether they can and should visit the patient personally.

This is crucial, given that the practice has access to the patient’s history and can make an accurate assessment of needs.

Having received the initial information from the surgery, the AVS GP will be informed of the need to visit the patient; will assess the necessary background clinical information and the nature of the current problem.

Subject to current capacity the AVS GP can then visit the patient and determine what actions need to be taken.

Criteria

The GP Visiting Scheme is for patients who:

  • are 60 years of age or older,
  • have urgent care needs but do not need to go to hospital so long as they can be visited by a GP within 1 hour, and the patient’s own GP is unable out carry out an urgent home visit, or
  • have already been assessed/visited by their GP, who knows that without close medical supervision and follow-up, the patient may end up being admitted to hospital when they could be more appropriately managed at home.

The Single Point of Access service is operated by St Helens Rota. This is primarily to facilitate GP admissions to the Acute Hospital to either the Medical Assessment Ward or to the Surgical Admissions Ward.

The request is made by either the patient’s own GP, the AVS doctor, the Children’s Clinic doctor or the Out of Hours doctor. Upon receipt of an SPA request St Helens Rota will contact the hospital to arrange the admission and if necessary contact the Ambulance service to arrange transport.

The St Helens Rota Call Handler will offer the referring GP a number of alternatives to admission if appropriate eg IV at home service, Clinical Connection Point Nurses (CCP), Walk in Centre DVT Service, Rapid Response service etc.

St Helens Rota has a fully operational Call Handling Centre. We provide call handling services to a number of clients including District Nursing, Emergency Dental services, Single Point of Access Services, and GP Practices.

We are happy to discuss new customer’s requirements. Please contact Steve Holbrook, Director of Operations, using the contact form on our website

Patient Satisfaction

  • Overall satisfaction with Treatment Centre 87% 87%
  • Recommendation to friends and family 87% 87%
  • Manner treated by reception staff 88% 88%

Our Performance KPI

Years In Operation

GP Practices In Remit

+ Staff

Patient Population

Testimonials From Our Patients

The service from picking up the phone was wonderful. The lady who booked our appointment was incredibly helpful.

I have always been very happy with the care we have received and all the help and advice given. I have strongly recommended this service to my friends and family.

Great peace of mind that I can contact the out of hours treatment centre and know that we will receive quality service – very happy.

Frequently Asked Questions

St Helens Rota provides urgent medical services for patients who need to contact a clinician when their own surgery is closed and whose needs cannot safely wait until the surgery is next open.

The service should not be used for non-urgent or routine conditions that could be managed by the pharmacist or your own GP within normal surgery hours. Please also note that this service does not provide repeat prescriptions which should be arranged with your own GP surgery.

For further information and advice on what to do out of hours please go to the NHS website.

How do I register as a patient?

St Helens Rota does not provide routine primary care services, so it is not possible to register as a patient. For help registering with a GP and finding a surgery offering services in your area go to the NHS website.

Can I contact you in case of an emergency?

St Helens Rota is not an emergency service – if you need emergency medical treatment, you must call 999. An emergency is when someone needs medical help to save their life, e.g. central chest pain, severe breathlessness, a suspected stroke, a prolonged fit (greater than 10 minutes) or a fit in a child. For further information and advice on what to do in emergency situation please go to the NHS website.

How do I make an appointment out of hours?

For an urgent appointment with a GP when your own surgery is closed please ring your GP practice telephone number and your call should be transferred automatically to St Helens Rota.

Service Provision Enquiries

We are open to new opportunities & partnerships.  Contact us to find out more & to discuss how we can help you achieve your goals.