Archived: E-zec Medical Transport - Bristol

Updated 3 August 2023

E-Zec Medical Transport -Bristol is operated by E-Zec Medical Transport Services Ltd. The service provides non-urgent, planned transport for adults and children with a medical need who need to be transported to and from NHS services. Patients are required to meet the eligibility criteria agreed with the local Integrated Care Board (ICB) to access the service, which includes being registered to a General Practice surgery. The service is commissioned by this ICB which serves the local community.

E-Zec Medical Transport Bristol’s fleet consists of 49 vehicles, including cars, vehicles for transporting people on stretchers, and vehicles with wheelchair access. The service is located in Bristol where they have 2 premises. One unit is where the call centre and some managers are based whilst the other unit location is where vehicles and supplies are stored. There are 2 satellite bases in Yate and Nailsea. We did not visit the satellite bases.

There is a registered manager in post at this location. Registered Managers have a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated regulations about how the service is run.

The service is registered to provide the following regulated activity:

Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.

The service provides approximately 71,600 patient transport journeys per year.

Following our inspection in January 2023, the provider was served with a warning notice under Section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 requiring them to:

• Make significant improvements to the responsiveness of the service.
• Reduce long waiting times for some patients to be collected and returned following outpatients/dialysis appointments.

Updated 3 August 2023

We carried out this focused follow-up inspection on 5 July 2023.

We did not inspect all key questions as defined within our methodology but focused on those areas highlighted in the warning notice as requiring significant improvement following our comprehensive inspection on 24 January 2023.

We have not changed the rating of the service as we focused on the areas we told the service required significant improvement previously identified in the Section 29 warning notice.

The inspection was announced with one working days’ notice to ensure the registered manager would be available.

During our focused inspection we reviewed all information to ensure the required actions against the Section 29 warning notice served against the provider in February 2023 had been completed.

We found that all areas of the warning notice had been met as follows:

• Patients had experienced a significant reduction in transport delays, particularly for dialysis.
• The management team demonstrated improved awareness of patient delays by improving journey scheduling methods.
• Patients were able to access transport when they needed it.

Although this was not part of the warning notice, we found the following improvements:

• Clinical waste bins were locked and secured correctly.
• Storage of chemicals were safely secured in a locked cupboard.
• Staff facilities has been resolved following concerns identified.

Updated 3 August 2023