BM Ambulance Service

Updated 30 July 2021

BM Ambulance Service is operated by BM Ambulance Service Ltd. The service opened this location in 2017. It is an independent ambulance service in Ashford, Kent. The service primarily serves the communities of Kent and the surrounding counties. The service provides non-emergency patient transport and repatriations to and from Europe (self-funding and through insurance), and medical cover at events to private organisations. We inspected the non-emergency patient transport service that included self-funded repatriations using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out a short notice announced inspection on 21 June 2021.

The service provides a patient transport service. This service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. CQC regulates the patient transport service and treatment of disease, disorder and injury service provided by Primary Ambulance Services. The other services provided are not regulated by CQC as they do not fall into the CQC scope of regulation. The areas of Primary Ambulance service that we do not regulate are events cover and repatriations made on behalf of service users by their employer, a government department or an insurance provider with whom the service users hold an insurance policy.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led?

The provider is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.
• Treatment of disease, disorder and injury

The registered manager had been in post since registering with the Care Quality Commission in July 2016 which continued to this location in November 2017. Registered managers have a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated regulations about how the service is run.

The provider employed 12 staff and worked with 70 staff on self-employed contracts. Staff included ambulance care assistants, emergency care assistants, paramedics, technicians, management and administrators. The fleet consisted of seven patient transport vehicles and between 1 May 2020 and 1 May 2021, the service provided 13,800 patient journeys. Of these, 13,200 were on behalf of their commissioning providers to NHS trusts and care facilities, 480 were high dependency transfers between local hospitals and 120 were for private clients.

Track record on safety:

• Zero never events
• 86 incidents; 48 clinical (no harm and zero deaths) and 38 non-clinical
• 11 complaints; 11 upheld

This is the first inspection of this location. The provider had 48 hours’ notice of our visit to ensure staff would be available to give us access to the site, vehicles and observe routine activity.

Updated 30 July 2021

We rated this service as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service-controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided good care and treatment and assessed patients’ food and drink requirements. The service met agreed response times. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• Minutes of senior management and clinical team meetings were paper based. This limited staff to access the minutes from one location only and did not align with the service’s objective of moving to a paper-less system.

Updated 30 July 2021

We rated this service as good. See the overall summary for details.