About BADGER

The Birmingham And District General practitioner Emergency Rooms group is a consortium of local doctors. The BADGER out of hours co-operative was launched in 1996 and has grown substantially since then. Today we have over 200 general practitioners using the service with a patient base of over 420,000. In addition the organisation now provides a range of services to a further million patients of Primary Care Trusts, Acute Trusts and other commissioners.

In July 2006, BADGER was awarded a 3 year contract to provide a full service to patients of Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust. At the same time BADGER was awarded a 3 year contract to provide the home visiting service on behalf of Sandwell and Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trusts.
In October 2006, BADGER was awarded a 3 year contract to provide a full out of hours service to patients of Solihull Care Trust and a new centre was opened within the Accident and Emergency Department at Solihull Hospital.

In December 2006, BADGER was awarded a 3 year contract to provide a full out of hours service to patients of South Birmingham Primary Care Trust and a new centre was opened at Selly Oak Hospital.

How does BADGER work?

Practices simply leave an answerphone message on their surgery phone when the surgery is closed. This invites patients in need of emergency medical attention to ring the BADGER call centre.

It is important for patients to call their local surgery first as there are different phone numbers for different Primary Care Trusts.

The service is not a ‘walk-in service’. You must always phone first rather than attend a BADGER centre.

Calls received are logged onto a sophisticated computer system before being put through to a doctor. All the doctors who work for BADGER are subscribing members or personal associates - we don't use any other agencies.

If a doctor can take the call immediately then this is preferable but if not, all patients are called back within 60 minutes by a member of staff. In some cases the receptionist may advise the patient to make their way to one of our BADGER Centres, or to contact another provider if this is what the doctor has advised.

Following this telephone conversation there are three possible outcomes:

* The patient is given expert advice for self care.

* The patient is invited to attend one of our treatment centres which are conveniently situated at:

@@Birmingham Childrens Hospital – Access from the corner of Whittall Street and Steelhouse Lane B4 6DH,

@@Good Hope Hospital – Access via the Outpatients Department, Rectory Lane entrance B75 7RR

@@Heartlands Hospital – Access via the Fracture Clinic adjacent to Accident and Emergency B9 5SS

@@Solihull Hospital – Access via Accident and Emergency – then turn right. B91 2JL

@@Selly Oak Hospital – Access via the rear door to Outpatients Department off Raddlebarn Road B29 6JD

* The patient is advised that a mobile doctor will visit. These doctors are driven from call to call by a dedicated team of mobile GP support technicians.

Please note that all calls to BADGER are recorded.

How do I contact BADGER?

If you require a doctor out of hours you will need to contact your GP surgery and follow the instructions given.

If you need to communicate with any member of the Management Team please email admin@badger.nhs.uk