Archived: Delta Medical Services Limited

Updated 14 May 2020

Delta Medical Services provides a patient transport service to patients travelling between their homes, places of safety, acute and mental health hospitals. Delta Medical Services opened in 2014. It is an independent ambulance service in Maidstone, Kent. The service primarily serves the communities of the Kent and Essex.

The service provides a service to an NHS provider of mental health services in a neighbouring county. This is a formal contract to provide inter hospital transfers for patients with a mental health illness.

The service has had a registered manager since 14 November 2014.

This was the second inspection under the comprehensive methodology that had been carried out. We issued the service with requirement notices following the previous inspection in February 2018. The requirements have in large part been met although there were still some gaps in recording on patient report forms.

Updated 14 May 2020

Delta Medical Services is operated by Delta Medical Services Limited. The service operates a patient transport service and provides services to patients travelling between their homes, places of safety, acute and mental health hospitals. The service primarily serves the communities of the Kent and Essex. It opened in 2014.

The service provides services to an NHS provider of Mental Health Services in a neighbouring county. This is a formal contract to provide inter hospital transfers for patients with a mental health illness to an acute setting.

The regulated activities provided by this service are:

• Patient Transport Services

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced inspection on 13 August 2019.

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.

The service had not been rated before. We rated it 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 mostly good care records. The service managed safety incidents and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.

• Staff provided good care and assessed patients’ food and drink requirements where necessary. The service met agreed response times. Managers monitored some elements of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients.

• We saw showed staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity and took account of their individual needs. 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.

• 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. They felt respected, supported and valued and 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 staff were committed to improving services.

  However;

• The service did not always follow best practice when recording the use of medical gases.

• Actions allocated during team meetings were not followed up or recorded as having been completed.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it that it should make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve.

Updated 14 May 2020

Delta Medical Services is operated by Delta Medical Services Limited. The service provides a patient transport service for people in the Kent and Essex areas, including those with mental health needs and children.

We rated the service as good because:

The service had enough staff with training in key skills and they managed infection risk well. Staff assessed and managed risks to patients.

Staff provided good care and treatment. Managers monitored elements of the service and made sure staff were competent.

Written feedback showed staff treated patients with compassion and kindness and respected their privacy.

The service met the needs of local people who could access it when they needed it and staff took account of their individual needs.

Leaders ran services well. Staff felt respected, supported and valued and were focused on the needs of patients.