We observed good interaction by reception staff with patients while they were waiting to be seen by a nurse. The staff were polite, courteous and helpful. This helped to ensure patient’s wishes and feelings were respected.

A nurse practitioner also told us, “We continually exchange clinical supervision messages by using the instant messaging service in our electronic patient administration system. This is an effective way of contacting other health care colleagues quickly and efficiently.”

We carried out a tour of the building and found there was a suitable and safe area for patients to wait for their appointment.

Patients we spoke with were complementary about the staff and expected to wait until their allotted appointment time. A patient told us, “I am happy with my appointment time and the time it took to be referred from the hospital.”

The provider took account of compliments and these were captured on comments cards that were displayed in the waiting area for patients to complete.

We looked at records that included a patient referral to another service. We observed good information governance practice in respect of the completeness and tracing of information before and after the patient referral.

We spoke with people waiting to see the nurse practitioner. People told us they appreciated a local service rather than using the city’s accident and emergency unit or seeing a GP at short notice. We asked if people had used the service before. One person had and two were attending for the first time.

The person who had attended before told us, “It is clean and new. You don’t have to wait long.” One person told us their relative had used the service and encouraged them to attend based on their experience.

We spoke to a person who was leaving and asked after their experience. We were told that their medical history had been asked about, that the treatment had been explained and they had been asked “permission” to be treated.

People told us the signage outside was not very clear and it was not easy to see which Freedom Centre building it was situated in, nor were there many signs once you found the correct entrance.