Agenda item

This report provides the Committee with a performance update on the non-emergency Patient Transport Service (PTS) for Kent and Medway, which is delivered by G4S.

Discussion

The process of rebalancing the patient transport contract to account for demand that was in excess of the level of activity included in the original contract had now been completed. This was a similar process to the demand and capacity review that had been undertaken by SECAmb. Additional funding had been put into the contract from the start of the current financial year.

The average time taken to answer the phone when patient transport was being requested had reduced from five minutes in April to 40 seconds, with the target being 20 seconds, which it was anticipated would be achieved. 80% of outpatients transports were now arriving at hospital on time with 90% being taken home on time. 98% of patients were spending the target time or less on board the vehicle. Less than 0.5% of journeys resulted in a complaint. For every 400 journeys booked in advance there were 2,600 booked on day of discharge which showed the challenges the hospital system faced. Having such a high proportion of journeys booked on the day made planning vehicle and staff availability extremely challenging. Work was taking place with commissioners, G4S and hospitals to try to address this. This included looking at how to better spread discharges throughout the day.

Ten new patient transport vehicles had been delivered during the previous month with three additional vehicles for Medway hospital due to become operational in the next week. Significant work had been undertaken with dialysis patients, with a relationship manager having spent time at hospitals to understand patient needs so that these could be factored into the specification for new vehicles. Patients who had had problematic journeys previously had also been visited.

A patient transport standard specified that no more than 1% of patients should wait longer than four hours to be taken home from hospital. The service had experienced significant problems with long waits. Much progress had been made but there was still more to do. The latest figures showed that 0.1% of patients booked in advance had experienced a long wait as well as 0.8% of patients booked on the day.

In response to a question from a Committee Member, it was confirmed that escorts were allowed to accompany patients on transport vehicles. The number of patient escorts was approximately 25,000 per year. Facilitating escort journeys could be challenging but there were no plans to restrict accompaniment.

A Committee Member asked what the process was for monitoring the contract and ensuring that improvement was sustained. The Committee was advised that the acuity of patients being transported had changed since the award of the contract and there had been a 3.5% increase in the number of patients requiring ambulance transport. Ongoing contract monitoring was undertaken with a detailed quality report produced on a monthly basis. This was rigorously challenged at a monthly contract review meeting. Full inspection CQC issued notices in relation to training had now been satisfied with evidence having been provided to the CQC.

The Managing Director for Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley; Medway; Swale; and West Kent Clinical Commissioning Groups personally reviewed the monthly quality reports for patient transport and personally signed response letters to complaints escalated to West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group, which hosted the contract. At his request, there was also quarterly reporting to Greg Clarke, MP for Tunbridge Wells and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

It was noted that the format of some of the patient experience data included in the report was incorrect. This would be changed for future reports.

Decision

The Committee considered and commented on the update provided.