Archived: Spark Medical HQ

Updated 26 July 2019

Spark Medical HQ is located in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire and is operated by Spark Medical Limited. It is an independent ambulance service that mainly provides patient transport services.

Spark Medical HQ primarily serves the communities of North Wales, West Cheshire, Merseyside and the Wirral. It undertakes the movement of non-urgent patients between hospitals, homes and care facilities in a pre-planned and short notice (un-planned) work environment.

The service has contracts with the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust (through an independent booking agency) and three local NHS acute trusts in England. In addition, they undertake private work. The service also provides first aid cover at events and can carry out emergency transfers of patients to hospital from events when required.

The service has been registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) since April 2018. It has had a registered manager in post since registering with the CQC in April 2018.

Updated 26 July 2019

Spark Medical HQ is located in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire and is operated by Spark Medical Limited. It is an independent ambulance service that mainly provides patient transport services.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 11 June 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.

This is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as Good overall.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• 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 good care records.
• The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided good care and treatment. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent.
• Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. 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 and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• 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.
• Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They 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 all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

• Whilst the service used systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines, it did not have any controlled drugs or a controlled drugs license to allow usage of emergency medicines such as morphine.
• Whilst the service carried out some monitoring of the effectiveness of care and treatment, information such as response times was not routinely collated in order to make improvements and achieve good outcomes for all patients.
• Whilst most consumable items were appropriately stored and kept within expiry dates, we found a number of sterile wound dressings that had expired.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Ann Ford

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (North Region), on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 26 July 2019

The main activity provided by the service was patient transport services.

The service also provided emergency services for patients that required transport from events to a hospital. As this was only a small part of overall activities, this has been reported under patient transport services.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led.