Patient redirection can help reduce service demand by providing information about more appropriate services. There is no evidence available regarding the effect of nurse-led patient redirection in an urgent care centre setting.

Develop and evaluate a nurse led patient self-care and redirection first (SCARF) intervention in an urgent care centre.

Adopting a prospective observational design, the intervention was delivered to an opportunity sample of patients attending a South London Hospital Urgent Care Centre, June-July 2014, evaluated through patient interviews 5-10 days after initial attendance.

118/1,710 people who attended the urgent care centre participated of whom 81 (69%) were redirected to other services (n=64) (e.g. pharmacist/ GP) or self-care at home (n=17) and 38 transferred to the emergency department. Of 110 (93.2%) participants who completed the questionnaire 97.2% were satisfied. Only 2 accessed different services to those recommended. 72.2% (n=85) reported they would not re-attend the urgent care centre for a similar condition.

Treating minor ailments in an urgent care centre is inefficient use of resources. A nurse led self-care and redirection intervention can help re-direct patients with minor ailments to more appropriate services. Further evaluation of the intervention on service demand and costs is required.