Archived: Medicmart999 Uk

Updated 15 June 2017

Medicmart 999 UK operated by Mrs Valerie Ellen Price is an independent ambulance service based in Yaxley, Peterborough. The service primarily provides patient transport services on behalf of a local NHS Trust to the communities of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire. This includes home to hospital, hospital to home, and hospital-to-hospital high dependency and critical care transfers.

The service also provides first aid cover to sporting events, although the Care Quality Commission does not regulate this activity.

The service was last inspected in November 2013. No action was required from that inspection to ensure compliance.

Updated 15 June 2017

Medicmart 999 UK operated by Mrs Valerie Ellen Price. The service provides a patient transport service.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 30 January 2017, along with an unannounced visit to the provider on 3 February 2017 and a further planned visit on 9 March 2017.

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?

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

We found the provider to be in breach of several regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Regulated Activities regulations (2014), inclusive of regulation 7 (requirements relating to registered managers), regulation 17 (good governance), regulation 13 (safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment), regulation 16 (receiving and acting on complaints), regulation 18 (staffing), and regulation 12 (safe care and treatment).

We considered the risk and potential impact of these breaches, suspended the providers registration for a period of three months from 8 February 2017 to enable them to make the necessary improvements.

The provider put the necessary improvements in place prior to the end of their suspension. After a re-inspection on 9 March 2017, the provider applied to have their suspension lifted and this was granted, with the service becoming operational again on 23 March 2017.

Services we do not rate

We regulate independent ambulance services but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.

We found the following areas where the service provider needs to improve:

The provider did not have sufficient oversight of the safety, effectiveness, caring, responsiveness or governance and leadership of the service.

The provider did not have robust policies and procedures in place for the running of the service and we were not assured that the existing documents were current in content and guidance. This included but was not limited to an incident management policy or process and a patient deterioration policy or process.

There were no systems in place to identify and assess risks to the service or the health, safety and wellbeing of its service users.

The provider did not provide certain statutory and mandatory training for its staff including but not limited to safeguarding, infection control and manual handling training.

There was no process in place to identify and raise safeguarding concerns, or to escalate concerns of a service user who deteriorated in the care of the service.

The provider did not have a robust system in place for obtaining recruitment checks such as validation and disclosure and barring service checks.

The provider did not adequately manage its storage, supply or administration of medicines including a category four controlled drug.

There was no audit and improvement processes and we were not assured that the leadership had an understanding of the safety and effectiveness of the service.

There was no system or process in place for gaining service user feedback or enabling service users to complain.

The provider did not have a system in place to ensure that stock in the vehicles intact and in date.

The provider was storing compressed gases unsafely and in an inappropriate location which presented an explosion risk.

The provider was not able to provide a service that met the needs of service users with different needs such as learning disabilities, dementia or some bariatric service users.

However, we also found the following area of good practice:

The provision of Medicmart 999 UK branded teddy bears to children being transported was a positive demonstration of meeting the needs of children using the service.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Professor Edward Baker

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 15 June 2017

Patient transport services were the main activity of the service.

The service was in breach of several regulations of the Health and Social Care Act (2014), such as requirements relating to registered managers, good governance, safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment, receiving and acting on complaints, staffing, and safe care and treatment.

This resulted in the service having their registration suspended for a period to make the required improvements. The provider applied for the lifting of the suspension in March 2017 and this was granted.