Issue - meetings

To examine the Quality Accounts for 2012/13 of the North West Ambulance Service and provide comment.

Tim Butcher, Assistant Director of Performance and Improvement at North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS), attended the meeting to present an overview of the NWAS Quality Account for 2012/13. In his summary of the quality account Tim Butcher highlighted the following points:

·         NWAS’s focus was on quality of service. This was a change from focusing on how quickly ambulances responded to emergencies towards providing assurance of high quality care.

·         The Trust was in the final stages of its application to become a Foundation Trust and was confident of being successful due to its commitment to identifying and improving the quality of service.

·         One of the aims was to provide the right care at the right time in the right place. There was an increased expectation on staff to ensure patients with specific issues (e.g. diabetes) received the precise care they needed.

·         The Trust had met all national operational response time targets for the year.

·         The Trust had an extremely positive inspection report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

·         An extensive and effective programme of engagement with patients had shown very high levels of satisfaction with both Emergency and Patient Transport services.

The Committee asked questions and the following points arose:

·         In 2011 the CQC had criticised NWAS for the poor quality of cleanliness in the Trust’s Vehicles (i.e. Ambulances) however as a result of this analysis the Trust had made improvements within 3 months. Since then an effective structure of monthly cleaning for each vehicle and independent infection audits meant that cleanliness was under control.

·         Members were concerned whether high demand and long waiting times at A&E departments had a knock on effect on patient turnover from ambulances. Turnover of patients had been decreasing and response time targets were being achieved however it was not always possible to guarantee that ambulances would not be held up by slow turnover during particularly busy periods for A&E departments.

·         The Committee wanted reference to the relationship between NWAS, Air Ambulance and St John’s Ambulance to be referred to in the report.

·         The Trust had a list of initiatives for improving care for patients with mental health issues. Some of these were already in place and others were set to be implemented in the coming year. The results of this initiative would be reported in next year’s quality accounts.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That Tim Butcher be thanked for attending the meeting.

(b)  That the draft Quality Account be noted.

(c)  That the Committee’s comments be formally submitted to North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust and requested to include in its final Quality Account for 2012/13.