Archived: Ambuline Leicestershire

Is the service safe?

We found through speaking with five people who used the service, observation and talking to staff that patients' safety and welfare was not always ensured and their individual needs were not always met.

Is the service effective?

The provider had an induction programme for staff who were new to the service and staff received training relevant to their role.

Is the service caring?

All the people we spoke with were positive about the quality of the care and treatment the service provided. A recent patient feedback report indicated that 99% of people who responded to the survey felt safe and cared for by Ambuline staff.

Is the service responsive?

The service was not meeting its key performance targets for transporting patients requiring dialysis but had made some progress and had developed an action plan and put systems in place to improve them.

Is the service well led?

Staff told us they felt supported by their line managers and line managers told us they felt supported by senior management. We saw that systems had been put in place to ensure staff were supported including supervisory support and professional development reviews.

We found the patients often arrived late for their appointments. This meant the service did not have effective systems in place to ensure people got to their clinic appointments on time

The provider worked in co-operation with others. We saw that the care, welfare and safety of patients using the service was discussed regularly within the local health economy.

Staff were well informed about the safeguarding procedure. They were able to identify types of abuse and explained with confidence who they would report it to.

Staff were not sufficiently supported, supervised and appraised to enable them to provide care and treatment to the patients who used the service.

We saw the provider had systems and processes in place to monitor and assess the quality of care but did not ensure staff were given the opportunity to share good practice and learn from audits, complaints and incidents.

The people who used the service were generally all positive about their experiences with it. They told us that the drivers were all very good. One person commented: "They're always lovely - the people who pick us up. The drivers are wonderful." Another person told us that they felt the service had improved over the past two months, saying: "If I may say so it's improved quite a lot now. Some of the new drivers are very, very good. At first it was quite chaotic but it's much better now."

We spoke with staff who described being well supported by their managers. They told us they were happy working for the service and that they felt adequately trained carry out their roles.

We reviewed the improvements made by the service and made our judgements based on the documentation we looked at and the experiences of the people using the service and the staff working there.

The people using the service told us that they were not happy with the times they were being picked up and collected for their hospital appointments. They reported to us that the transport often arrived late which had an impact on their hospital appointment. They also told us that, at times, the vehicles were not suitable for their needs. One person said, "When we come out of dialysis we are not well. We need transport to be waiting for us and do not need the hassle of trying to sort it all out ourselves. The vehicles are too small. They're not big enough for three people to be sitting at the back." Another person using the service told us, "I only use them twice a week when I have no alternative. The service is that bad."

Staff told us that they felt supported by the management. This was the case for all of the staff we spoke with. Some of the staff we spoke with did not feel adequately trained to carry out their role and did not feel that their training needs were monitored and refreshed when necessary. One member of staff commented that, "I don't feel the new starter process is adequate. We'd get people that were good at the job if they got proper training."