Archived: Care Safe Mobility

Updated 3 August 2023

Care Safe Mobility is registered as an independent patient transport service (PTS) based in Rayleigh, Essex and is operated by Advatec Healthcare Europe Limited. The service registered with the Care Quality Commission on 10 December 2020. The service provides PTS and conveys patients to and from hospitals in Essex and the surrounding areas. The service operates between the hours of 09.30 – 17.00, seven days a week. 

This is the first time we have inspected the service under its new name and location. Care Safe Mobility were previously known as Hippo Mobility and was based in Benfleet, Essex.  

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered manager has been in post since registration commenced on 10 December 2020. At the time of our inspection, the provider had applied to the CQC to add an additional registered manager and the new location in Rayleigh. The applications were under review at the time of our inspection and the provider was operating from an unregistered location. 

The service is currently registered for the following regulated activity: 

• Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.

Updated 3 August 2023

This is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as good because:

• 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 provided mandatory training in key skills to all staff and made sure everyone completed it.
• People could access the service when they needed it.
• The service made sure that journeys ran on time and took into account the needs of patients.
• The service had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. Managers regularly reviewed and adjusted staffing levels.

However:

• Leaders did not have enough oversight of governance arrangements within the service. Not all policies and processes reflected best practice and had not been customised to the needs of the service.
• Risk assessment documents were generic and included template wording
• Infection prevention and control measures in place were not clear and there was no guidance on how vehicles should be cleaned after each patient journey.
• There were no written eligibility criteria for patients that wanted to use the service.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, responsive and well led. We inspected caring but did not rate as we were not able to speak to patients.

Updated 6 July 2021

Hippo Mobility is a patient transport service operated from its location in Essex and also covers the London area. The provider Advatech Healthcare Europe Limited registered with the Commission on 10 December 2020.

The service has one ambulance and five wheelchair accessible cars. The service is registered to provide; transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely and currently employs seven staff. Since the beginning of the year a total of 49 journeys were conducted in scope of the registered regulated activity.

We inspected this service using our next phase inspection methodology. We carried out a short notice announced inspection on 12 May 2021. We conducted this inspection due to receiving concerns about the service. We have not previously inspected this service.

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? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.