• Ambulance service

Archived: Docklands Medical Services

Flat 40, Adventurers Court, 12 Newport Avenue, London, E14 2DN 07958 431751

Provided and run by:
Docklands Medical Services (London) Ltd

Important: The provider of this service changed - see old profile

Latest inspection summary

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Overall inspection

Updated 1 October 2015

Docklands Medical Services are registered to provide the regulated activity of ‘transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely’. They are sub contracted to provide a patient transport service to Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital by a private ambulance service that has the patient transport contract for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The service is registered to a business address in East London. The ambulance crews are based at a residential address in Basingstoke which is close to the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital where they handed over the ambulance vehicles between shifts.

The service operates seven days a week and is always crewed by two members of staff. There are two shifts. One shift is 10.30am to 7pm and the other is 7pm to 7am. The service transfers patients between hospitals and takes patients’ home. The crews covered the whole of Hampshire.

We carried out a focussed, unannounced inspection at the Basingstoke residential address and at the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital on 8 July 2015. This was in response to reports from members of the public regarding poorly maintained ambulances, inappropriately parked in a residential street.

We also carried out an arranged visit to the provider’s registered address on 16 July 2015 to gather further information.

As a focussed inspection we looked at specific parts of the service only. This inspection was primarily focussed on the area of safety and on the suitability of the ambulances used for the patient transport service. We did not inspect the caring domain.

Our main findings were as follows:

There was no evidence that the ambulance in use had been deep cleaned, cleaned or repaired, to an appropriate standard. There were no facilities available to internally clean the ambulance on a daily basis. The vehicle contained a range of equipment which was proportionate for a patient transport service (PTS) vehicle. A contract was in place to test all medical equipment however, not all equipment had been tested. The crews responded appropriately to patient risk and were aware of the levels of complexity they could and could not manage. Incidents were appropriately reported and learnt from in quarterly reviews.

Crews’ experience, competencies and training was demonstrated. They were supervised and their competencies monitored.

Complaints were appropriately reported and learnt from in quarterly reviews.

Performance meetings took place on a quarterly basis where key performance indicators and all other quality issues were reviewed.

We have made requirement notices as a result of this inspection which can be found at the end of this report.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals