South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust Headquarters

Updated 22 June 2022

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) provides NHS 111 services to Kent, Medway and Sussex. SECAmb NHS 111 service operates 24 hours a day 365 days a year and is able to establish emergency calls and dispatch an ambulance where required. It is a telephone-based service where people are assessed, given advice and directed to a local service that most appropriately meets their needs. It is a free to-call single number service for urgent and not emergency medical assistance. SECAmb provides the NHS 111 service to a population of approximately 3.8 million across Kent, Medway and Sussex. The service receives approximately 1.5 million calls a year plus cases from users of ‘111 online’.

The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2014 to deliver services from Nexus House, 4 Gatwick Road, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9BG and to provide the following regulated activities: Transport Services, triage and medical advice provided remotely, Treatment of disease disorder or injury, Diagnostic and screening procedures.

During the inspection we visited the headquarters and an operational site where NHS111 services are delivered from: Orbital House, Moat Way, Sevington, Ashford TN24 0TT.

Further information can be found at www.secamb.nhs.uk

Updated 22 June 2022

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 02 2019 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Requires Improvement

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS 111 service on 28 February and 1 March 2022. This was to follow up on a breach of regulation 12 identified in the July 2019 inspection. The visit was also part of a Trust wide inspection. Action taken had resulted in improvements to meet the essential standards although call response times continued to be a challenge.

At this inspection we found:

• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from an integrated service with specialisms to meet their needs.
• Commissioned targets were not being met for call response times and abandonment rates.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

We found the following areas of outstanding practice:

• Having worked with the commissioners and other external organisation to establish a Direct Appointment Booking (DAB) service, approximately 30% of all triaged patients received a DAB into an external provider. This service improvement had resulted in a Health Service Journal improvement Award for ‘Best Acute Sector Partnership with the NHS’.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to work towards meeting the key performance indicators on clinical call back times, call abandonment rates and call response times.
• Continue working towards supporting the workforce in order to reduce the pressure and improve staff morale.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care