Issue - meetings

Purpose of the report: This report updates the committee on the South East Coast Ambulance Service, with special focus on changes since the last report of 8 March, especially in the areas of performance, the recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report, executive leadership development and other strategic operational updates, or local performance and development initiatives of interest for Surrey.

Witnesses:

Ryan Bird, ePCR Operations Manager, SECAmb

Peter Carvalho, Senior Contracts Manager (Ambulance Contracts & IUC), Surrey Heartlands

Bethan Eaton Haskins, Executive Director of Quality & Nursing, SECAmb

Kate Scribbins, Chief Executive, Healthwatch Surrey

Nick Markwick, Co-Chair, Surrey Coalition of Disabled People

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. The Executive Director of Quality and Nursing gave a summary of the report, including the following points.
   1. The report looked at performance, executive development and future plans. Despite advances having been made, the service still required radical improvement. SECAmb examined its own performance from a quality perspective, not a financial perspective.
   2. The incoming HR director of SECAmb could be announced as Ali Mohammed. Details of new executive leadership, including the new Chief Executive, were covered in the report.
   3. SECAmb’s top priority was sustaining and improving response times.
   4. SECAmb received an outstanding rating in the caring category, which was a good morale boost for staff. They also received an outstanding rating in the well-led category.
   5. For category 1 and 2 calls (the most urgent), the service was close to or exceeding targets. However, SECAmb remained challenged with regard to category 3 and 4 calls, due to the lower priority level.
   6. There were struggles in recruiting paramedics, which might worsen when paramedics started working in primary care, as this would make the job offer less attractive to some.
   7. Hospital handover delays were also an area of concern. There needed to be system-wide change to tackle this.
   8. Ofsted found two out of the three areas inspected in the clinical education department less than satisfactory. Members were assured that education programmes were still being run, but were no longer allowed to be called apprenticeships. An independent review of this had been commissioned.
   9. Whatever the outcome of Brexit, mutual aid had been agreed upon in order to mitigate potential negative impacts.
2. A Member asked for more information on performance issues in rural populations. The Executive Director explained that there was a strategy to ensure that essential framework remained in place in rural areas. The ePCR Operations Manager added that rural areas were mainly where category 3 and 4 delays were seen. The Senior Contracts Manager (Ambulance Contracts & IUC) remarked that collaborative work was being done with regard to system resilience and accessing local care pathways that could not currently be accessed.
3. A Member requested clarification regarding SECAmb’s acquisition of the NHS 111 contract. The Executive Director answered that the commissioning for the 111 and 999 services were separate, and that currently SECAmb ran the 999 contract but until now had not run the 111 service. Qualified healthcare professionals would handle 111 calls where necessary.
4. Members emphasised the importance of SECAmb staff having special training regarding mental health and learning disabilities. For example, explaining the situation to patients with autism was essential for alleviating anxieties that could be more likely for autistic patients. The Executive Director explained that there were mental health clinicians in the assessment centres and this had had a significant impact on improving outcomes. Members suggested that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23