Agenda item

Report by the Chief Executive and Director Strategy & Development of South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb).

The report updates the Committee on SECAmb’s recent Care Quality Commission report, performance and other issues relevant to West Sussex.

41.1   The Committee considered a report by the Chief Executive and Director Strategy & Development of South East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) (copy appended to the signed minutes). The report was introduced by Andy Cashman, Regional Operations Manager, who told the Committee that SECAmb was working on a range of actions to improve following disappointing Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections.

41.2   Summary of responses to Members’ questions and comments: -

·        SECAmb was set targets for its entire operating area but could produce response time figures for local areas, but if there were a low number of incidents this might skew the results

·        Crews based at the Tangmere station was broadly meeting category one and two targets

·        At busy times, there was a national agreement that calls could be answered by other ambulance trusts, as part of national resilience arrangements

·        Neighbouring trusts can, if required, respond to calls on border if they have availability and are nearer to the incidents

·        There were incidents where trusts worked across borders, but most vehicles were based at response posts where there was most need

·        The Demand and Capacity review looked at how to get the most appropriate response to patients in the quickest time – two years of investment would be needed to achieve this

·        An extra 60 hours capacity per day will be introduced into the West Sussex area over the next two years

·        Non-emergency transport was being used for lower category cases

·        SECAmb was working with Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust using special vehicles to respond to falls cases (for treatment and occupational therapy support)

·        SECAmb’s average response time during the Falls vehicle Pilot was 46 minutes

·        In Crawley and Horsham there was a mental health street triage programme involving a paramedic and a mental health nurse who assessed/treated patients or took them to a place of safety – ways are being sought to find the most suitable models for other areas including more rural areas

·        From February there would be six mental health nurses in the emergency operations centre – SECAmb would like more multi-disciplinary staff in call centres to help get the best responses for patients

·        More whole system funding would allow appropriate alternative responses to ambulances

·        The Trust’s progress was being monitored monthly by the CQC and NHS Improvement and it was expected to be out of special measures by next year

·        There was a detailed Strategic Transformation and Delivery Programme for areas that needed improvement which included detailed work on recruitment and retention and could be brought to the Committee at a later date – workforce strategy was also being discussed by each of the four Sustainability Transformation Partnerships in the area covered by SECAmb

·        Recruitment and retention had improved and the Trust was looking at ways to avoid losing staff to other sectors of the NHS – a pilot scheme was taking place in the north of the county where staff were shared on a rota basis with GPs

·        There was an action plan in place re bullying – the Trust’s Board, senior staff and operational managers were all having training on behaviour standards

·        SECAmb has an alliance with West Midlands and South Western Ambulance services based on optimising procurement and value for money

·        All trusts in England were working towards a common ambulance design

·        SECAmb worked with St John Ambulance on day to day work and specific major events

·        The Ambulance Response Programme meant cars were only used for more specialist cases, non-emergency transport was used for cases with lower needs

·        SECAmb’s fleet used Sat Navs which were updated centrally and were backed-up by map books (which needed to be kept updated)

·        Under the Ambulance Response Programme, the clock stops if the patient does not need to go to hospital or, if the patient does, when suitable transport is available – the use of community responders did not stop the clock

·        All incidents were categorised according to national guidelines

·        Handover times at hospitals had improved, but were still a problem that needed a whole system solution

41.3   Resolved that the Committee: -

     i.        Welcomes the update provided by the Trust and plans to move the Trust out of special measures and would welcome sight of the performance improvement plan to do this

    ii.        Asks for performance data to be broken down further within clinical commissioning group areas and that this be provided to the Committee with any accompanying explanatory information

  iii.        Requests that it receives an update on trials and initiatives for responses to falls and mental health cases at the appropriate time

  iv.        Welcomes the offer to see the details of the Trust’s plan, as part of the wider Sustainability and Transformation Partnership at a future meeting