GMB, the union for ambulance staff at East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAS), has requested a meeting with senior managers to discuss the findings in the Trust's newest way of reporting on how the Trust is delivering patient services.
The new reporting method is called 'Vital signs'.This includes what the Trust board determine as being the main indicators of the health of the organisation. This latest report includes data from 1st April 2013 to 30th September 2013. A copy of the latest report in in additional resources at the bottom of this release on the GMB website.
The report assesses the performance for EEAS Trust against eight performance indicators over the six months to end September 2013 as follows:
· Red 1 – calls that are immediately life threatening, cardiac arrest etc (target 75% in 8 minutes, year-to-date, 74.91%)
· Red 2 - calls that are immediately life threatening, serious breathing difficulties etc (target 75% in 8 minutes, year-to-date, 72.06%)
· A19 – time it takes to get a 'transportable resource' to the patient (target 95% in 19 minutes, year-to-date 93.59%)
· Red 1 – calls that are immediately life threatening, cardiac arrest etc- Trajectory - Better than last month but not meeting the required level of performance.
· Red 2 - calls that are immediately life threatening, serious breathing difficulties etc- Trajectory - Worse than last month and not meeting the required level of performance
· A19 – time it takes to get a 'transportable resource' to the patient- Trajectory - Worse than last month and not meeting the required level of performance
· 1 Hour Urgent - transportable response times. Target is 75% in 60 minutes. Year to date performance is 65.05%. An urgent call is defined by DoH as not an emergency but one where a time limit is set (1-4 hours) and therefore has a lower priority. 1 Hour Urgent is generally where a GP has visited a patient (usually) at home and requested an ambulance to take the patient to hospital within 1 hour Trajectory - Worse than last month and not meeting the required level of performance.
· Backup Delays - this is the time that a Solo Responding Person working on a rapid response vehicle will wait on scene of a job for an ambulance back up to transport a patient to hospital. This measures for Red 1 and 2 and Green 1 and 2. This measures in % of backup delays over 60 minutes. Trajectory Worse than last month and not meeting the required level of performance
Warren Kenny, GMB Regional Officer, said:
“The report does not make for very pretty reading but it is good that EEAS Trust is looking at itself thoroughly.
There is a lot of information to be broken down and digested from this report. From what I have seen so far which is worrying, not just an officer responsible for members in the EEAS, but as a member of the public is just how much the service is not meeting the 'required level of performance'.
Considering the winter pressures have not yet started I just do not know how EEAS is going to cope come December.
GMB is calling for an urgent meeting as working together on systems and procedures with EEAS managers is the only way to improve patient care. Staff and managers have a common aim which is to provide the best possible service to patients in our area.”
Don Berwick, co-founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, said in his report on improving patient care that "NHS staff are not to blame “in the vast majority of cases it is systems, procedures, conditions, environment and constraints they face that lead to patient safety problems.
Robert Francis QC also made clear the responsibilities of all those involved in addressing the systemic failures by NHS organizations.
EEAS must ensure that managers create the environment to allow honesty from the staff running the ambulance service day by day.
When we meet I want to tell the Trust that it has continued to fail to listen to its staff. It forced through the roster redesign that the staff said would not change a thing and has thus proved it didn't work. The Trust has also failed to address the low staff morale. This is why their intended paramedic recruitment drive failed.
Continually pushing through staff negatives i.e. removing the 25% unsociable payment when sick, making it harder for relief staff to earn the 25% unsociable payment and changing the sickness absence policy has not made matters any better.
The Trust needs staff on board to help meet the targets. To do so they must to listen to the concerns of their staffs.”