You are in:
Home/ Find a service/ Rapid Access Clinic for Elderly

Rapid Access Clinic for Elderly

Medway NHS Foundation Trust RACE (rapid access clinic for elderly) 

A specialised consultant Geriatrician led service designed to meet the needs of older people with specific medical problems, providing a holistic assessment, diagnostics and treatment plan, primarily for older people in the local community.

Eligibility criteria:

Concerned for a patient who is over 80 years old and needs:

  • urgent attention over the next 24–72 hours to avoid hospital admission or
  • assessment by a consultant who can organise tests and provide urgent advice and a management plan
  • recent weight loss (more than 10% of their body weight)
  • sudden worsening of memory problems
  • unexplained decline in mobility
  • patients with long-term conditions that have decompensated

Exclusion criteria:

Patients who meet the following criteria will not be assessed in the RACE:

  • Acute medical emergencies needing urgent interventions
  • Patients who have acute mental health needs
  • Routine out-patient appointments

The RACE will:

  • Provide a consultant led Comprehensive Geriatric assessment (CGA) within 72 hours of a possible deterioration of a medical problem, to prevent admission into acute hospital
  • Prevent/reduce multiple visits to hospital by providing a one stop medical, diagnostic workup and multidisciplinary assessment
  • Improve patient experience by streamlining services to meet urgent medical need
  • Enable older people to retain independence by optimising underlying medical conditions

What happens at RACE?

  • To start with you will be seen by one of our nurses who will take your blood pressure, pulse, temperature, weight and check your oxygen and blood sugar levels
  • You will then be seen by a doctor
  • You have the option to bring another person with you to clinic to support you
  • You may also have some blood tests, if requested by the clinic doctor, and they will be reviewed
  • A heart trace (electrocardiogram or ECG) may also be performed. This involves attaching several pads to your chest, arms and legs so that we can see how well your heart is working electrically
  • After assessment by the doctor you may require other tests which may include an x ray, a CT scan, an ultrasound scan or an echocardiogram. We try to arrange these for the same day, but can’t always promise this
  • RACE is a teaching clinic so you may be asked permission for a medical student, student nurse or a community nurse to sit in during your assessment. Please let us know if you would prefer them not to be present. You may be asked to provide written feedback of the performance of your doctor in clinic
  • At the end of your appointment we will have a much clearer idea of what is troubling you and what your condition may be in order to put a plan of action in place
  • Summary of clinic outcome and further recommendations will be emailed to your GP

Who can refer:

  • GPs
  • SECAmb
  • ED
  • MedOCC
  • Urgent Response Team (Medway)
  • Rapid Response Team (Swale)
  • Advance Nurse Practitioners, Community Matrons, Specialist Nurses
  • Therapists.

How to seek advice:

For those patients that do not need a referral, please call Consultant Connect (details will be available soon)

How to refer:

Depending on the urgency of the need we will aim to review your patient within 72 hours or if less urgent within 2 weeks of receiving the referral.

For urgent clinic appointments:
We will aim to book an appointment within 72 hours. Please call 01634 833812 and email the referral form to medwayft.race@nhs.net or via ERS (GPs only)

For less urgent referrals:
Please email the referral form to medwayft.race@nhs.net or via ERS (GPs only)