The Care Quality Commission
  • Ambulance service

Archived: E-Zec Medical - Dorset

Units 9 and 10, Drewitt Industrial Estate, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH11 8LL

Provided and run by:
E-Zec Medical Transport Services - Trading As EMED Group Limited

All Inspections

22, 23 January 2014

During an inspection in response to concerns

We carried out this responsive inspection because we had received information of concern from members of the public and health professionals. The concerns were that E-zec Medical had significant issues regarding planning and delivering their patient transport service to people resulting in very late pickups, missed pickups and late and missed collections of vulnerable people who used the service. We also had concerns raised around E-zec's recruitment processes, information technology security and their complaint process.

Prior to the inspection we spoke with commissioners of the service and obtained their views on E-zec Medical Transport Dorset. During this two day inspection we spoke with the managing director, two E-zec Directors, the registered manager, the contract manager, the fleet manager, the operations support officer, four call centre operators and three ambulance crew. We also spoke with four people who had used the patient transport service E-zec provided.

During this inspection we identified shortfalls in the provider's ability to deliver the service to the required standard. However we also identified the provider had not been given accurate information during the tendering process regarding the number of pick ups required each day or the size of the service. This meant the provider had not been able to put in place sufficient staff and vehicles to deliver the service to the required standard.