Agenda item

This report provides an update on Trust performance across its 999 and 111 service, a further update on the Trust’s continuing improvement journey as the Trust makes progression to exit NHS England’s Recovery Support Programme following the published Care Quality Commission reports in July and October 2022, since the previous update to the Committee in January 2023.

Councillor Joy, having earlier disclosed an interest, left the meeting for this item and took no part in the discussion.

Discussion:

Members considered a report which provided an update on Trust performance across its 999 and 111 service, a further update on the Trust’s continuing improvement journey as the trust made progression to exit NHS England’s recovery support programme following the published Care Quality Commission reports in July and October 2022. The report also included an outline of the recent Trust strategy development programme which, following a wide range of engagement from the Trust’s people, partners, and patients, now described the strategic direction and operating model for the trust over the next 5 years and beyond. 

The following issues were discussed:

·      Staff welfare – a Member noted that staff welfare had been poor in the past and queried whether new initiatives such as body warn cameras had helped and whether they had led to a decrease in complaints. SECAmb advised that they had seen year on year improvements in staff welfare, with the highest results in Medway. The new site in Gillingham had been transformational in terms of welfare and training facilities. Body worn cameras were voluntary. There were high levels of violence and aggression against ambulance crews in Medway. In Medway there was also a joint response unit with the police which provided support to crews. An offer was made for Members to visit the new Gillingham Make Ready Centre.

Whether staff morale had been affected by the changes in the Executive team was queried. SECAmb advised that staff were now more engaged about the future of the organisation. The improvements in the staff survey were seen as significant as morale would usually deteriorate after a negative Care Quality Commission report. In addition, applications to work at the Trust had started to increase.

·      Safeguarding – the Director of Peoplecongratulated SECAmb on improvements made on safeguarding.

·      Hospital transfer rate – a Member congratulated SECAmb on the speed at which patients were transferred into the hospital and queried whether this was a cause in more patients having to be treated in corridors. SECAmb responded that improvements made by MFT had been an important factor in this improved conveyance time. After patients were assessed, they were moved to a different part of the hospital, which could lead to patients being treated in unsuitable areas, especially in the winter, and this had had a significant impact on response times. The issue around corridor waiting was around patient flow and the improvement in conveyance times had been due to good working with the Integrated Care Hubs where multi-disciplinary teams worked to make ED conveyance the last resort.

·      New Strategy – noting there had been significant changes recently in the Executive team, how confident SECAmb were in the delivery of the new strategy and how long the strategy would be in place for were queried. SECAmb responded that they had been on a significant improvement journey and four warning notices in place had been removed in 9 months and the Trust had moved from inadequate to required improvement in six months.

There was a need to match capabilities, skill sets and competencies across the organisation. In terms of confidence in the Strategy, the latter had been very much a co-designed process involving patients, staff and partners about what they wished to see from the service.

·      Performance – Members congratulated SECAmb on improvements in performance and culture following the CQC inspections.

Decision:

The Committee agreed to note the report and request an update in March 2025.