Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships that provided supporting information to accompany a presentation from the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) NHS Foundation Trust that set out the new ambulance response standards and progress made against the quality accounts priorities for 2017/18 (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Assistant Director of Communications NEAS gave a detailed presentation that highlighted the following:-

·         Response time standards up to 30 October 2017

·         National Benchmarking – Pre ARP – October 2017 Year to Date Red Performance

·         Ambulance Call Volumes 2005/06 to 2016/17

·         Ambulance Performance Standards

·         Ambulance Standards

·         Ambulance Response Programme

·         ARP Categories 1 and 2 – January 2018 Benchmark

·         ARP Categories 3 and 4 – January 2018 Benchmark

·         Quality Priorities – current position

·         Priority 1 – Early Recognition of Sepsis

·         Priority 2 – Cardiac Arrest

·         Priority 3 – Long Waits

·         Priority 4 – Safeguarding Referrals

·         Quality Strategy 2017 – 2020 – to care, to see, to learn, to improve

·         Quality Priorities 2018/19 – building on what we’ve achieved

The Assistant Director of Communications and Engagement NEAS, concluded his presentation by drawing Members’ attention to the online survey which was available from 23 February to 19 March, to gain feedback from stakeholders to assist in determining the quality priorities for 2018/19.   He then asked for comments and questions on the quality priorities identified.

Councillor Smith asked for further information on current staffing levels.  The Chief Operating Officer NEAS, responded that a demand and capacity review had recently been concluded and a total of 121 additional staff were required with funding already identified for 84 staff.  37 paramedic posts were required which equated to 7%. Some of these posts were clinician posts. 

Councillor Smith referred to an acronym used in the presentation, ‘CWILTED’ and asked for an explanation.  The Assistant Director of Communications and Engagement NEAS, explained that the acronym stands for ‘Condition’, ‘Witnessing’, ‘Incident’, ‘Location’, ‘Time’, ‘Escort’ and ‘Description’ and it is a tool to assist staff when completing safeguarding referrals.

Councillor Grant referred to the many different ways that health services could be accessed when people were ill, saying that this can cause confusion over which course of action was best and, in turn, that this could lead to delays in obtaining the best outcome for patients.  The Chief Operating Officer NEAS, responded that the 111 service was undergoing some improvements and that a GP appointments booking system was currently being developed.  The demand and capacity review indicated that category 3 calls required more resources for improvement.  

Councillor Grant commented that it was important that reports provided a fuller picture, including both positives and negatives, in order that discussions at meetings could reflect the issues that the public were experiencing.

In response to a question from Councillor A Bainbridge, the Chief Operating Officer NEAS, informed Members that records were available on the location of defibrillators, through First Responder Schemes and community public access defibrillators.  Councillor Crute commented that there were several defibrillators available within his ward and he asked if there was scope to deliver defibrillators more widely in the community.  The Chief Operating Officer NEAS, replied that contact would need to be made with the Defibrillator Team which was a team of 3 staff who were currently delivering approximately 6 schemes per week.

Referring to the increase in travelling times, Councillor Temple asked if there was information available as to whether the reconfiguration of services had affected these times.  The Chief Operating Officer replied that this information was tracked, for example when a Unit was closed, information was gathered as to what effect this will have on resources.  Councillor Temple added that it would be useful to see data on the average distance travelled, over the last two decades.

A member of the public referred to emergency health care plans and asked if there was a percentage figure available for the number of patients, dealt with by paramedics, who had a health care plan in place, and, whether there was any monitoring of how many times these plans were used by paramedics.  The Chief Operating Officer NEAS, replied that the figure may be quite low as much of the workload is urgent care.  Monitoring was carried out through patient care records. The member of the public then asked if health care plans have had an impact on the quality of the service and the Chief Operating Officer responded that the plans were useful for determining the most suitable destination for the patient.

Resolved:

That the report be received.