17 October to 30 October 2017
During a routine inspection
19 Green Way is operated by Wealden Ambulance Service. The service provides patient transport services and event services. This inspection only looked at the provision of the patient transport service as that is subject to regulation by the CQC.
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 17 October 2017 along with an unannounced visit to observe direct patient care on 30 October 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.
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 of good practice:
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The condition and the cleanliness of the service’s vehicles was noted to be of a high standard.
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The service had proactively used findings from other CQC inspections of similar services to carry out a gap analysis and make changes to how they were operating.
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Policies in key areas such as safeguarding, cleanliness and infection control were robust, effective and well embedded with staff.
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The availability of clinical advice from experienced paramedics ensured that staff had the confidence to carry out their roles safely.
However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:
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There was a lack of formal recording of meetings held amongst the management group which in turn did not demonstrate how decisions were made and communicated.
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Records of training were not always dated and original certificates were not always retained on personnel files.
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The depot environment where the vehicles were kept had no CCTV coverage and the surfaces were in a poor state of repair.
Amanda Stanford
Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals