South Western Ambulance Service keeps 'good' ratings after new CQC inspections
The health watchdog has found significant improvements following recent inspections
The health watchdog has rated ambulance services across the South West as good following fresh inspections.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) praised faster stroke response times, quicker answers to 999 calls and the care patients receive from staff at South Western Ambulance Trust after inspections between April and July.
Frontline care crews and 999 call handlers were also rated as outstanding.
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of more than five million people across Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon, Dorset, Bath, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
The trust operates a 24-hour clinical response to 999 calls, an urgent treatment centre at Tiverton and District Hospital, a non-emergency transport service on the Isles of Scilly.
The recent CQC inspections aimed to monitor health services and assess progress since previous evaluations.
Key improvements were noted by inspectors in the emergency operations centres, and emergency and urgent care.
The Tiverton Urgent Treatment Centre was rated as good overall again, highlighting improvements in safe care and management.
Five services within the trust saw enhancements in their ratings.
The emergency operations centres maintained their good status for key attributes such as effective and responsive care, with 'safe' upgraded from requires improvement to good and 'caring' elevated to outstanding.
Similarly, the emergency and urgent care service improved its overall rating from requires improvement to good across several criteria, including safe and effective care.
However, CQC inspectors did say more work was needed to spot and manage risks in the patient transport service on the Isles of Scilly.
Catherine Campbell, CQC deputy director of hospitals, secondary and specialist care for the South-West, said:
“When we inspected South Western Ambulance Service, we found people were receiving safe and effective care across the board, with significant improvements in both urgent and emergency care and the patient transport service.
“Whether they were in an ambulance, attending the urgent treatment centre, or speaking to call handlers in the emergency operations centre, people said staff treated them with kindness and dignity which made all the difference in distressing situations.
“The trust was helping to alleviate pressure on local emergency departments, and ensuring people received the most appropriate treatment for their needs, faster. For example, we saw 1837 people attended the urgent treatment centre in April instead of going to the emergency department. Leaders had also increased the number of clinicians in the emergency operations centre to better prioritise people who needed an ambulance and those who could be signposted to other services.
“We found leaders had a solid understanding of the services they managed and there was an encouraging focus on continuous improvement and innovation to better meet the needs of the largely rural population.
“For example, we saw the trust had introduced urgent care medication bags on the Isles of Scilly, which any registered healthcare professional could administer in an emergency. Also, in the urgent treatment centre, leaders had introduced individual testing devices to support diagnoses within the department, meaning people didn’t need to wait for lab results.
“We did identify some areas for improvement, particularly in the patient transport service, where leaders weren’t monitoring performance and weren’t doing enough to identify and address risks.
“We’ve told the trust to provide us with an action plan setting out how it will respond to these concerns. With good ratings for all services, this is a strong foundation for the trust to build on in future.”
Dr John Martin, Chief Executive, South Western Ambulance Service, said: “I would like to thank our people for this fantastic achievement, especially those who supported the inspections. Their hard work, compassion and commitment was evident throughout.
“In our strategy, we said that we wanted to be recognised as an improving organisation. These results are another important sign that we are beginning to see the impact of the significant time, effort and focus that has gone into making that ambition a reality.
“The reports recognise the progress we have made since our previous inspection. That progress has involved listening to feedback, strengthening our services, improving the way we work and maintaining a clear focus on quality, often in challenging and demanding circumstances.
“There is still work to do, and the CQC feedback will help us continue to learn and improve. But for now, there is plenty to be proud of.”