9 North West Ambulance Service PDF 1 MB
To consider the Quality Account and an update on current issues
Minutes:
Tim Butcher, Assistant Director for Performance Improvement, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), presented the draft Quality Account. He explained that the Quality Account provided an opportunity for NWAS to talk about the wide ranging role of NWAS rather than just focusing on response times.
He outlined the main highlights of the year including:
Exceeding the national quality target for responding to the most
serious life threatening emergencies within 8 minutes following a
999 call;
They were the first ambulance trust in England to achieve Level 2
compliance against NHS Litigation Authority’s Risk Management
Standards;
They were awarded the Health Service Journal Clinical Redesign
Award for the Paramedic Pathfinder project, a toolkit to ensure
that patients were treated and cared for safely and in the most
appropriate place following an emergency call.
The Care Quality Commission had conducted an inspection in March 2012 and had given a very positive report on NWAS compliance with the CQC standards of quality and safety.
This year NWAS was seeking authorisation as a Foundation Trust which would involve enhanced arrangements for public and staff involvement.
In relation to the five priorities for improvement as identified in the previous year’s Quality Account, progress was as follows:
End of Life Care – NWAS had developed a Rapid Discharge
Procedure with ten organisations across the North West. This had enabled an integrated discharge pathway
to ensure patients could end their lives with dignity and in their
own home. This year 87% of transfers
had been completed within 2 hours of the request being
made; NWAS had also produced a
“how to” guide for ambulance services to improve
services offered to people at the end of life; NWAS had introduced
a system where patients at home had personalised care plans
wherever possible and staff were alerted to this when attending the
patient’s home address;
111 and Frequent Callers – NWAS had stated they would begin
the process of a single point of access for urgent and emergency
care. They also wanted to work with
local commissioners to address the issue of people who made
frequent 999 calls. A pilot had been
set up of the 111 number for urgent care needs. Work had also taken place with each PCT regarding
frequent callers who were often vulnerable people who were not
aware of alternative help and support;
Chain of Survival and Complementary Resources – NWAS had a
two year plan to increase community access to life saving equipment
and skilled volunteers – the “Complementary
Resources” Strategy. During
2011/12 NWAS had worked in partnership with the British Heart
Foundation, and introduced 20 new Community First Responder
Schemes, 50 new staff responders (volunteers) and 125 additional
Automated External Defibrillators (AEDS) installed in public
places. There were a number of
Community First Responder schemes in Cheshire East including Holmes
Chapel, Knutsford, Poynton and Alsager,
with new schemes introduced in Bollington and Middlewich. The presence of Community First Responder schemes
had helped with response time targets.
NWAS had achieved the target for ...
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