- SERVICE PROVIDER
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
Assessment report published 22 May 2026
Contents
Ratings - Emergency operations centre (EOC)
Our view of the service
Date of Assessment: 27 and 28 November 2025.This was a fully comprehensive assessment of the Emergency Operations Centres (EOC) at South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) based at Medway in Kent and Crawley in Sussex.
The reason for this unannounced assessment was the trust had a previous CQC inspection in 2022 when the EOC was rated requires improvement. Since then, the trust has been through a period of transformation and managerial changes. This assessment was to measure if improvements had been made since the last inspection. The previous inspection found the provider was in breach of the legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment, governance, and staffing. At this assessment, we found the service had improved overall and was no longer in breach of the legal regulations. The EOC service rating has improved from requires improvement to good.
The service had a robust process for learning from incidents, complaints, and patient feedback. The EOC call centre area was completely secure. Staff had access control cards to enter the EOC call centre. Computers were password protected. The provider had a clear governance structure relating to safeguarding and a safeguarding team. Staff responded appropriately when they recognised patient deterioration and risk. Staff completed mandatory training via a mixture of face-to-face and e-learning sessions. Staff received regular appraisals. New staff joining the trust received an induction tailored to their role. The service continuously monitored their performance through audit and national benchmarking. Staff treated people as individuals and placed patients at the centre of their care. The service analysed complaints data and grouped this into themes. The service ensured patients waiting for clinical callbacks remained safe in the queue. Leaders were visible and approachable across the organisation. The trust clearly focused on and valued equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in their workforce. The service used quality improvement projects (QIPs) as a structured approach to identify areas for development, implement change, and measure the impact of interventions, supporting continuous learning, improvement and innovation.
However, actual staffing did not always align with planned staffing. Not all staff felt supported and listened to. We heard not everyone within the leadership and executive group valued freedom to speak up. Staff gave mixed feedback about their experience of speaking up.
People's experience of this service
We were unable to speak directly with patients during our assessment of the Emergency Operations Centre. However, a review of patient feedback indicated that the provider received significantly more compliments than complaints. Patients frequently praised staff for their professionalism, behaviour, and compassion. Negative feedback primarily related to both perceived and actual delays in ambulance response times, as well as concerns about communication.