Urgent Community Response (UCR) Service

The Urgent Community Response (UCR) team provides a community rapid response to Lewisham borough residents seven days a week, Monday to Sunday from 8am to 8pm. This service treats patients at home to avoid a hospital admission or readmission.

All referrals are triaged by the on-call Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) and if clinically necessary seen within two hours. If required, you can also be seen you later the same day or the next day by a multidisciplinary team of ACPs with support from consultants, the hospital frailty team, and colleagues in emergency care.

Patients who require a two-hour response must be referred by 6pm on the day of referral.

If needed, a short-term intervention can be put in place for the patient for up to five days.

Our service is for people over 18 who are housebound and registered with a Lewisham GP. Our full list of who we can and cannot see is further down the page; please read these carefully to help ensure that our team can help your patient.

How to refer to our service

Any healthcare professional can refer a Lewisham patient to our service:

  • GPs
  • One Health Lewisham
  • Paramedics
  • 111
  • Same Day Emergency Care team at University Hospital Lewisham
  • Emergency Department at University Hospital Lewisham

Referrals can be made via:

Phone:  07900 594 383

Email:   lg.UCR@nhs.net

Opening hours: 7 days a week, 8am - 8pm

Email referrals require a follow up call to confirm receipt.

Referrals can be actioned on the same day if submitted before 6pm.

Who we can see

We can see patients who:

  • are 18+ years of age,
  • are registered with a Lewisham GP,
  • patients who are unable to leave home due to illness as well as those who are housebound 

Who we cannot see

We are unable to treat patients who have:

  • suspected or new CVA/TIA,
  • suspected myocardial infarction,
  • significant arrhythmia with haemodynamic compromise,
  • a severe chest infection that is likely to require oxygen therapy or in respiratory distress,
  • gastrointestinal haemorrhage,
  • diabetic emergency,
  • acute psychiatric complaint,
  • intractable social crises,
  • suspected fracture, a fractured neck or femur or trauma with a suspected fracture prior to orthopaedic review,
  • head injury/trauma and unconscious GCS >13,
  • collapsed and require resuscitation,
  • acute abdominal pain with collapse.

 

More about our service

The below video explain more about our service, and what the UCR team can do for Lewisham residents:


Example scenarios