News

The UCR service is a team of multiskilled health professionals who provide an urgent response in the community to east Surrey residents for conditions such as falls, dizziness, chest pain (non-cardiac origin) and urinary tract infection.  From December 2021 to December 2022 the team have treated over 734 patients!  Often patients are elderly and have other conditions which makes treatment more complex. The UCR team are trained to provide a holistic approach to care for such patients.

First Community's Caterham Dene Minor Injury Unit (MIU) is open from 8am-8pm seven days a week for adults aged 18 years and over. 

The MIU can assess and treat a wide range of conditions including:

On 17 January, First Community Health and Care in partnership with Sport England and Active Surrey delivered the first ever group based exercise class in east Surrey to support patients suffering from Long Covid.

We have identified a small number of our patients who have developed an infection called invasive Group A Streptococcus (also known as invasive Strep A). This page gives some more information and general advice about this infection.

Group A streptococcus (GAS) 

Group A streptococcus (GAS) – also known as Streptococcus pyogenes – are bacteria that can be found in the throat and on the skin. People may carry GAS and have no symptoms of illness or may develop infection. 

How GAS is spread 

On Saturday 7 January 2023, the Surrey Heartlands health and care system moved from a critical incident into a business continuity incident. This was in place until 12 January 2023, when the system moved out of business continuity incident. This reflected a significant amount of work by teams across the system, resulting in an improved position. Although First Community services remain extremely busy, they are currently working as usual.

The First Community Network, launched in November 2021, gives members of the public the opportunity to have an input into the way community health services are developed and improved, and gives them a choice of how they’d like to be involved.

On Saturday 7 January the Surrey Heartlands Health and Care system moved from a critical incident into a business continuity incident which reflected a slightly improved position across the system. Although First Community services remain extremely busy, they are currently working as usual.

Due to the significant ongoing pressure on local NHS services, alongside the need to act swiftly to ensure patients continue to receive safe, high quality care we have declared a critical incident across health services in Surrey Heartlands. 

Group A Strep infections can cause a number of different symptoms such as a sore throat, impetigo (which is a skin infection), and fever.

Following an intensive 6-month rehabilitation programme with First Community’s cardiac rehabilitation physiotherapists, heart failure patient Mr Michael George makes huge improvements to his health, enabling him to be placed on the heart transplant waiting list for the very first time.