Providing urgent care at home
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
Urgent Community Response (UCR) Service
The new Urgent Community Response (UCR) Service, run by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust alongside North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) is designed to improve how some 999 calls are managed and reduce pressure on emergency services.
Instead of automatically dispatching an ambulance for all calls, less urgent 999 cases (Category 3 and 4) are clinically triaged and, where appropriate, referred to community-based UCR teams.
These multidisciplinary teams can assess and treat patients in their own homes – often within two hours – helping to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and freeing up ambulances for life-threatening emergencies.
Since launching in November 2025, the UCR service has handled over 4,000 calls, with 38% of patients avoiding a hospital admission.
One of these patients is Sandra Hughes, a 74-year-old from Bootle, whose story was featured on ITV News after she was quickly assessed and treated by the service after suffering a fall at home.