Medicmart Ambulance Service

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• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

This means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence.

This is the first assessment of this service at this location.

This key question has been rated as good, this means that people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

We have not awarded this service a score for Effective.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Effective.

The evidence showed a good standard. The service made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs.

We were unable to observe any patient transport journeys during the inspection; however, we were able to speak to staff. Staff told us that when they were transporting people, they considered the whole care experience while the person was with them, they made people as comfortable as possible, keeping them and their families informed on all aspects of the journey. Staff told us they considered all physical and communication needs. Information around the person and their requirements was gathered at the planning stage of the journey, this information was passed onto staff before the journey was undertaken.

The service planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them.

Staff were trained to undertake their role and were aware of their own scope of practice. Staff were experienced and had the right skills and knowledge to care for the patients they would be presented with. The service planned journeys providing appropriate staff to care for and treat the people that they were transporting. Staff told us that if they were presented with a patient that became unwell on a journey they would seek additional assistance and call 999.

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

Staff had access to policies, guidelines and other assessment tools to enable them to appropriately plan, assess and deliver safe care and treatment to support people. Staff told us they got on well and supported each other and mainly worked as a crew. There was a patient transport car in which a member of staff would work alone. To support this there was a lone worker policy, and a risk assessment had been completed. Patients were listened to and information appropriately shared when the person was transferred to another service. Staff ensured a smooth transition and continuity of care as the patient was moved across different services, places of care or home environments.

The service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence and choice.

Staff explained that they were able to give people help and support to have choice and control around their own lives and to remain independent within their own homes engaging in conversations around health and wellbeing .

The evidence showed a good standard. The service routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

Staff told us that on patient transport journeys they would talk to and observe patients, considering anything that may indicate a change in a patient’s condition. This allowed them, together with the patients and families, to make informed and considered choices and monitor outcomes. Feedback received following patient transport journeys was positive and complimentary to staff. We spoke to the local authority who commissions patient transport services from Medicmart who told us that there were no concerns or issues around transport times.

The service told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

Staff understood the importance of obtaining consent and the consent process before delivering care and treatment, ensuring that patients fully understood what they were consenting to. Staff receive training in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) as part of their level 2 safeguarding adults’ training and were 100% compliant in this competency.