Archived: LIFELINE Medical Transport Service Limited

Updated 15 February 2018

LIFELINE Medical Transport Service Limited is operated by LIFELINE Medical Transport Service Limited. The service opened in 1997. It is an independent ambulance service in Seaton Delaval, Tyne and Wear. The service primarily serves the communities of South Tyneside.

The service works with one NHS trust providing patient transport services. They move non-urgent patients between hospitals, homes and care facilities.

The service has had a registered manager in post since 2012.

Updated 15 February 2018

LIFELINE Medical Transport Service Limited is operated by the provider, which is also called LIFELINE Medical Transport Service Limited. The company provides a patient transport service.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 21 November 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:

• Staff were committed to providing the best quality care to patients. Staff displayed a caring and compassionate attitude and took pride in the service they were providing.

• Staff checked patients’ requirements prior to transporting them to ensure that they were able to meet their needs.

• We observed good multidisciplinary working between crews and other NHS staff when moving patients.

• The management team worked with a local NHS hospital trust to provide services which met the needs of local people.

• Staff were well supported by the management team; they told us the management team were friendly and approachable.

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

• Equipment used on the ambulances had not been regularly serviced to check it was safe for use. The systems in place for checking the equipment had not picked up on faults identified during the inspection.

• Vehicles had an MOT and road tax, however there was no service history available, or other audit system in place, to monitor that the vehicle remained safe for use.

• Infection control practices were in place, but staff had not received training in relation to cleaning ambulances and there were no monitoring or audit systems to check that cleaning was effective.

• There was an incident reporting system that ambulance crews had instigated and co-ordinated with the NHS Trust they worked with. However, these reports were not reviewed by the provider to identify actions which could minimise the chance of recurrence.

• Staff were unaware of the Duty of Candour at the time of the inspection. However, we were assured by the management team that they supported all staff to work in an open and transparent manner.

• Staff followed an induction programme and had completed some relevant training to ensure that they had skills to carry out their role. However, training was inconsistent; some staff had not completed relevant training to an appropriate level for their role.

• Relevant background checks had been carried out during recruitment processes. This included, for example, a full Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. However, we found that driving licence checks had not been carried out for two members of the ambulance crew staff.

• There were limited plans in place for managing potential disruption to the service, for example, in the event of flood or fire, at the time of the inspection.

• The service did not currently seek feedback from patients to monitor the quality of the service.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements. We also issued the provider with two requirement notices in relation to breaches of the regulations that affected patient transport services. Details are at the end of the report.

Ellen Armistead

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

Updated 15 February 2018

We have not rated this service because we do not currently have a legal duty to rate this type of service or the regulated activities which it provides.

The only service provided was in relation patient transport.