East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) today (27 September, 2018) welcomed the report by NHS efficiency champion Lord Patrick Carter that highlights areas where the ambulance service and the NHS as a whole can change to operate more effectively.
EMAS director of strategy and transformation Will Legge welcomed Lord Carter’s report, Operational productivity and performance in English NHS ambulance trusts: unwarranted variations, which focuses on many areas where we are already making strong progress.
“This year we received an extra £9m to invest in new ambulances and extra frontline crews and, subject to meeting performance and financial targets, we hope to receive an extra £10m next year. This will help us to provide high quality care more quickly and more consistently,” said Will.
“In the face of higher-than-ever demand, we know that we must improve our performance and quality of care even further and I am proud of the progress being made across EMAS.”
This includes:
- Whenever it is safe to do so, treating patients at the scene, rather than taking them to hospital. The number of hear and treat and see and treat incidents at EMAS – non-conveyances – has increased (28,367 cases in August 2018 up from 26,407 in August 2017)
- Using control room-based paramedics and nurses to further reduce demand on accident and emergency by carrying out clinical assessments and – when it is safe to do so – directing patients to other care services or treating them over the phone.
- Piloting a scheme that places mental health nurses in the community and within multi-agency teams to help patients for whom busy accident and emergency departments may not be the most appropriate places.
- Working with all our hospitals to reduce delays in clinical handover of patients when we arrive at accident and emergency departments, thus increasing the time our crews are available to respond to the next 999 call.
- Introducing make-ready vehicle preparation systems. Over time this will bring in dedicated make ready assistants to prepare vehicles ready for the start of each shift – increasing the time our frontline crews spend with patients.
- Investigating the roll-out of new IT systems that give our clinical staff access to patients’ medical records, allowing them to make better-informed clinical decisions and provide better care.
- Acting to cut our sickness absence rates (Around 5.8% for this year to date, down around seven percent in the same period in 2017-2018). We run nationally-recognised support systems for staff, including formal training and one-to-one help from colleagues.
"I also welcome the launch of the Model Ambulance Service Portal which will help us to develop and share best practice across all ambulance trusts. We are looking forward to supporting development of this prototype to help us deliver data-driven, evidence-based change that delivers sustainable improvements for the people we serve," said Will.