Agenda item

Steve Emerton (Director of Strategy & Business Development), Ray Savage (Strategy & Partnerships Manager) and James Pavey (Regional Operations Delivery) from South East Coast Ambulance Services (SECAmb) were in attendance for this item.

(1)  The Chair welcomed the guests from SECAmb and asked them to highlight any key points from their paper.

(2)  Mr Emerton summarised the progress made in recruitment and updating infrastructure. In addition, he noted:

·         over the last quarter response times during the working day had improved but there continued to be challenges in the early to late evening;

·         the Trust had experienced high demand with the recent heatwave, similar to the winter period;

·         category 1 and 2 calls were almost or already achieving targets, whereas category 3 callers continued to face delays.

(3)  A Member asked a question around the training of ambulance staff. Some interventions could only be carried out by a qualified paramedic. Mr Emerton recognised the importance of training and SECAmb were building on that area. The entry routes into becoming a paramedic varied, from a graduate completing additional training lasting less than 12 months to an unqualified recruit that would enter a 3-5 year programme resulting in an academic qualification.

(4)  The pressure on staff, and the importance of staff morale and retention were discussed. Mr Pavey agreed that paramedics were a valuable commodity and explained that a key part of SECAmb’s strategy was to make the organisation a good place to work.

(5)  Referring to the staff survey in appendix 3, a Member asked for a more detailed report into the findings – they had particular concern around health and wellbeing. They also wanted to know the proportion of staff that had regular breaks as well as the number that got home on time each day. Finally, Mr Pavey assured the Committee that appraisals were key and that the organisation had invested significantly in their structure over recent time and that all staff had a named manager.

(6)  A Member questioned the impact of heavy town traffic on SECAmb. Whilst traffic did affect an ambulance’s ability to get from A to B, this was a national issue. When not answering a call, ambulances would be strategically placed in areas that had a greater chance of receiving a call (based on data modelling). The Trust was a consultee for planning applications.

(7)  A Member asked why the response time in the NHS Thanet CCG area was so much quicker than other areas (as shown in Appendix 1 to the agenda paper). Mr Pavey explained that that Thanet population was much more concentrated than in areas such as Swale, which had a lot of rural communities. Rurality presented a challenge as services were more likely to be further away – this could not be reflected under the current targets. Mr Emerton echoed this, but assured HOSC they continued to seek service improvement that would reduce the longer wait times in rural areas.

(8)  In order to improve handover delays, Mr Pavey explained how the Trust had regular meetings with the Chief Executives of Hospital Acute Trusts in order to maintain a collective focus on handover delays. Some hospital trusts had capacity issues so the problem could not be solved solely by the ambulance service.

(9)  RESOLVED that the Committee note the report and that SECAmb provide an update at an appropriate time.