An Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) has moved on a temporary and emergency basis to be the Treatment Centre at Birmingham’s Good Hope Hospital.

North Birmingham UTC stopped operating at Erdington Health and Wellbeing Centre in Edington’s High Street and is now fully operational at Good Hope Hospital. It will operate between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week.

The new location at Good Hope Hospital provides patients and UTC colleagues with better security and more modern facilities, while it will also support in reducing pressure on the hospital’s A&E department by ensuring patients who inappropriately attend A&E can be triaged and treated more quickly to the UTC.

UTCs provide urgent medical help when it’s not a life-threatening emergency and patients can access any of the six UTCs that operate across Birmingham and Solihull by contacting NHS 111 online or over the phone.

Patients can access, via NHS 111, any of the six UTCs in operation across Birmingham and Solihull, including Erdington UTC which is based at Stockland Green Primary Care Centre.

Faith Button, chief delivery officer at NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB, said: “We remain deeply committed to the provision of healthcare services across our city and borough, including Erdington and Erdington UTC remains in operation.

“I want to stress that this is a temporary relocation which has been carried out on an emergency basis and this decision is not one which has been taken lightly.

“We are confident that the new location at Good Hope Hospital will lead to better experiences for our communities and we would encourage anyone who needs urgent healthcare to make use of it via NHS 111.”

The permanent future location of North Birmingham UTC will be decided as part of a strategic review of all UTCs across Birmingham and Solihull, which is in its preliminary stage.

As part of this review, the NHS will be engaging and consulting with communities across the area to ensure their vies play a key part in the NHS’s strategic thinking and decision-making process.

Meanwhile, the public is urged to use the right service at the right time including pharmacists, GPs and NHS 111 and 111 online if they need advice and support for health conditions. They should only call 999 or attend A&E in life-threatening emergencies.

Pharmacists can suggest treatments that do not need a prescription for a range of conditions and most offer a service called Pharmacy First which means they can provide prescription medicine for seven conditions without the need to see a GP or make an appointment.