Marked improvement in ambulance response times
The South Central Ambulance Service is now one of the top performing trusts in England
JUST two years after being branded one of the worst performing ambulance services in the country, the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) appears to have turned itself around.
The service is now one of the top performing trusts in England and has been given a top rating in the Government's National Clinical Performance Indicators for its response times and overall clinical performance.
All 11 England ambulance trusts are measured for their clinical performance in five key areas - stroke, heart attack, cardiac arrest, asthma and diabetic emergency.
The SCAS is currently ranked as the number one English ambulance trust for stroke and heart attack, the number two for cardiac arrest and asthma, and the number three for diabetic emergency.
In 2009, the Care Quality Commission branded the trust “weak” and one of the worst performing in England because of its poor service and failure to reach emergency response time targets as set out by the Government.
But as of March 31 this year, the ambulance service was beating the required response times in all three categories.
In the category A (immediately life threatening) target, to respond within eight minutes, the SCAS has beaten the national target of achieving this in 75 per cent of emergency cases and has done so in 77.39 per cent of cases.
For the category A 19 minute response time target (life threatening but the patient is able to be transported), the SCAS achieved this 95.31 per cent of the time, slightly above the national target of 95 per cent.
In the category B 19 minute target (serious but non-life-threatening emergencies), the SCAS achieved this in 91.28 per cent of cases - the national target is 90 per cent.
The chief executive officer of the SCAS, Will Hancock, said: "To be recognised as the top performing ambulance trust in mainland England both in terms of National Clinical Performance Indicators and Government response time targets for immediately life threatening 999 medical emergencies is a real achievement for the trust.
"More than that, it is testament to the dedication, commitment and professionalism of all our staff from the front-line to the back office as we work towards becoming a foundation trust free from Government control of our finances and management and more open and accountable to local communities across the four counties we serve."
After its weak rating in 2009, several schemes were introduced to bring it up to scratch, including making better use of community first responders and paramedics on various modes of transport to get to patients quicker and starting a falls provision programme whereby people who fall regularly in their homes are picked up and hazards identified by people other than paramedics.
SCAS director of patient care, Fizz Thompson, said: "The days of simply administering first aid to patients, loading them onto a vehicle and driving them to hospital are long gone.
"Today the service is a truly mobile healthcare provider and ambulance clinicians are more highly trained and better skilled than ever before to provide the best possible service to our patients.
"Every one of them has done a fantastic job towards ensuring SCAS is now the top performing trust in England in terms of aggregated clinical performance, and we are all working towards providing an even better care to our patients in the future."
