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News Article
Hospital accused of delaying ambulances to eliminate corridor care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
MaA hospital trust has been accused of delaying the offloading of ambulance patients so it can maintain zero “corridor care”. University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust had no patients being treated in corridors, while ambulance crews were providing care in its car parks, according to a West Midlands Ambulance Service board paper last week. Minutes of the ambulance trust’s quality governance committee said UHCW had “better flow” than most local hospitals, but “the problem is our staff are still providing ‘car park care’”. Paramedic and senior staff side representative Stephen Thompson told the committee that staff were frustrated about the situation. He said bringing even a small number of patients inside the hospital, which is on the outskirts of Coventry, would free up several ambulances to respond to other emergencies. WMAS medical director Richard Steyn pointed out that acute trusts were now under pressure from NHS England to report on corridor care, and claimed there was less focus on ambulance handover delays. “They [UHCW] will not tolerate corridor care, but they are responsible for the patient outside in the ambulance, but [they] are tolerating that,” he said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, May 2026 -
News Article
Increase in corridor care ‘haemorrhaging morale’, trust told
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Governors at one of the largest trusts in the country have warned that moving patients from beds to chairs to free up space is a risk to staff and public morale. University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust has been moving patients from beds on wards to trolleys and chairs in corridors for at least the past two months, to make way for patients who need beds after arriving in an ambulance or attending A&E. However, staff raised concerns during a governors’ meeting last month that it had also begun moving patients from beds in the middle of the night, and in a way that undermined their privacy. Staff governor Lee Williams said this was “sitting very uneasily with the staff” and “badly affecting morale”. Mr Williams said: “My big fear is the advances the trust has made in terms of its morale in the clinical areas is going to haemorrhage away.” He added: “Sometimes the [location] of these temporary escalation spaces is preventing other healthcare professionals providing the care that they would like to in cramped spaces in bays… and relatives are very unhappy with the situation too.” Another governor, Gerry Moynihan, described the situation as “shocking”. He questioned if patients are being displaced “so that we can have statistics that say we’ve offloaded ambulances quickly”. He said that at Heartlands Hospital, patients were being offloaded “very quickly”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 May 2026 Further reading on the hub: How corridor care in the NHS is affecting safety culture Corridor care guidance needs to move beyond what “should” happen and grapple honestly with why it isn’t Corridor care: are the health and safety risks being addressed? -
News Article
Trusts expect to miss emergency care target
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Four of England’s 10 ambulance trusts are expecting to miss the headline response time target for 2026-27, according to their plans for the year. Details of trusts’ plans as agreed with their commissioners, collected by HSJ, suggest Category 2 performance could be around 26 minutes 30 seconds nationally, rather than the 25m recovery target. Recovering response times for Category 2 incidents – which include suspected heart attacks and strokes – has been a key ask from government and NHS England for several years, and has clear targets in the medium-term planning framework. However, ambulance trusts typically agree their target times each year with integrated care board commissioners and NHSE, based on funding on offer and the expected impact of hospital handover delays, which take crews out of action. They then plan for on-road hours and the staffing needed. An NHSE spokesperson said: “We have started the year well on track to hit ambitious national targets for category two calls, and we are supporting every ambulance trust to improve their response times and, in some cases, exceed the national target.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 May 2026 -
News Article
Trusts name first joint CEO
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A chief executive has been appointed to lead ambulance services for a population of about nine million, in a new group of two trusts. Simon Ashton is currently the hospital chief executive of Newham University Hospital, which is part of Barts Health Trust. He will become the first joint CEO of South East Coast and South Central ambulance service foundation trusts. They have begun forming a group and together will be bigger than all other English ambulance trusts except London. The trusts recruited together, and the appointment had to be confirmed by both their councils of governors. They have said they do not plan to merge, but are working together on areas including workforce planning, digital, clinical collaboration, service resilience, and staff wellbeing. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 April 2026 -
News ArticleA midwife who broke down in tears at the inquest of a baby who was delivered “blue and floppy” said an ambulance should have been called almost an hour-and-a-half before the birth. Poppy Hope Lomas was seven days old when she died on 26 October 2022 following complications during a “high-risk” home birth that her mother said she was encouraged to have. Barnet Coroner’s Court had previously heard Poppy’s mother Gemma Lomas, from Enfield, north London, was not made aware of the risks involved with delivering naturally in her home, having already delivered her first daughter, Willow, by caesarean in 2018. Midwife Sasha Field, who was present at Poppy’s birth, said in her written statement, which was read out to the inquest by senior coroner Andrew Walker, that an ambulance should have been called around 90 minutes before Poppy was born when she heard the baby’s heart rate slow down after a contraction, as a report by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch had found. In fact, midwives told Jason Lomas, Poppy’s father, to call an ambulance at around 10.37pm, two minutes after she was born, by which time it was clear she was showing no signs of life, Ms Field said in her statement. Read full article. Source: The Independent (21 April 2026)
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News Article
Nearly half of 999 patients don’t need major A&E treatment
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly half of patients who arrive at hospital in ambulances are being discharged without needing major care, according to data obtained by HSJ. Experts said the research also revealed a “postcode lottery”, with patients more likely to be taken to A&E in some areas due to a lack of alternative settings. The internal NHS England data has tracked how many ambulance patients were later discharged without any inpatient or “same day” emergency care, or transfer to another service, at different sites. These patients may have required hospital-based diagnostics, for example, or review from emergency clinicians before they could be sent away. At 24 hospitals, more than 50% of ambulance patients are being discharged without going to an inpatient or ambulatory unit. The highest proportion was 85% at St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey. It was at less than a third at other sites. This put the national average at 46%, according to data obtained by a Freedom of Information request. There was a wide range of acuity levels among ambulance patients discharged without further serious care. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 8 April 2026 -
News Article
‘It’s weird how white you are’, Alliance boss tells ambulance leaders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance chiefs have been urged to take greater efforts to ensure their workforce is more diverse by NHS Alliance chair Lord Victor Adebowale. Lord Adebowale told the Ambulance Leadership Forum that it was “weird” to be in an environment which was so predominantly white. The NHS Alliance is the body formed by the union between NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation. Its chair told the annual forum of ambulance chiefs: “I can’t believe how white you are”, noting most of the other meetings he went to had at least 5 per cent non-white participants. He praised the work ambulance trusts had been doing to improve the treatment of LGBT+ and neurodiverse staff but added the sector had a “problem” with racial diversity. Lord Adebowale said: “It is not sustainable, it’s not credible. So whatever you are doing it is not working fast enough.” Rates of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff in ambulance trusts are lower than in other parts of the NHS. In part, this reflects a paramedic population that is predominately white, with overseas recruitment tending to focus on countries like Australia which have similar training. There is only one BAME CEO in the sector – North West Ambulance Service’s Salman Desai – and a sprinkling of executive directors. None of the 10 English ambulance trusts are led by a woman. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 March 2026 -
News Article
Streeting urges CEOs to shave seconds off waiting times
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance chiefs have been urged to shave a few seconds off response times in the next three weeks as they are said to be within reach of the government’s key recovery target for the sector, HSJ has learned. Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting told ambulance trust leaders on Monday that just a few seconds’ improvement could mean the target for category 2 calls – which include suspected heart attacks and strokes – could be met for 2025-26 overall. Ambulance trust leaders confirmed to HSJ that a small improvement across England in the coming weeks – including some trusts which remain well below 30m – could make the difference between success and failure. One source, speaking to HSJ, characterised the message from Mr Streeting as “shave two seconds off your average time and we will get there”. But another added that it was important to do the right thing for each patient, even if it took slightly more time. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 11 March 2026 -
News ArticleSome ambulance trusts report that up to two-fifths of their ambulances are unavailable, with ageing vehicles sidelined for repairs and replacements. An over-reliance on old vehicles is being exacerbated by problems related to industry fixing and supplying new ambulances. In one case, 43% of South Central Ambulance Service’s vehicles are “off road”, which is having “a negative impact on 999 performance, with insufficient fleet capacity to meet operational hours required”. It blamed the need for repairs on an ageing fleet, delays in the delivery of new vehicles, and existing vehicles being “overused” in an attempt to compensate. South Central Ambulance Service Foundation Trust – which covers the Thames Valley and Hampshire region – also confirmed ambulance availability was a factor in it declaring a “business continuity incident” last month. The incident was called when winter pressures, compounded by the capacity problems, saw an increase in response times for category 2 incidents, which cover a wide range of 999 calls, including suspected heart attacks and strokes. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 16 February 2026
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News Article
Trust bosses clash over ‘car park care’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance service leaders have clashed with a large hospital trust for putting “pressure” on its crews to deliver “car park care” while patients wait to be admitted. The row has even resulted in senior figures from one provider – University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust – suggesting the West Midlands ambulance medical director was “compromising his registration” by resisting it, according to meeting minutes published last week as part of January’s board meeting papers. West Midlands Ambulance Service University Foundation Trust said it is battling pressure, chiefly from UHBFT, to allow “treatment of patients by [emergency department] staff in [the] rear of ambulance, or patients being treated in ED and put back on ambulance” after receiving initial treatment, such as catheterisation or infusion. Minutes of the WMAS quality governance committee, reporting on one meeting between senior leaders about the issue, said: “UHB did challenge whether the WMAS medical director [Richard Steyn] is compromising his registration by not allowing them [ED staff] to provide care in the back of the ambulance.” WMAS “should not be supporting the requests from the hospital to develop standard operating procedures and procedures for the treatment of patients in the ambulance”, according to the minutes published last month of a committee meeting that took place in November. Doing so, it said, risked “this [becoming] the ‘norm’ whereby the ambulances will be used as an additional cubicle and whilst doing this our patients are dying”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 February 2026 -
News Article
Revealed: Bid to overhaul key emergency target
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
National officials are in talks about a major overhaul of the ambulance response time target that covers more than half of emergency calls. Category 2 is by far the largest group of ambulance incidents, at 51% covering relatively minor concerns up to suspected heart attacks and stroke. Their formal target response time is 18 minutes. This has rarely been met at a national level, but – in the wake of a huge rise and outcry from 2022-24 – there has been a big improvement over the past year. The NHS is trying to meet a 30-minute recovery target this year, which falls to 25 minutes in 2026-27. However, ambulance leaders are now suggesting major changes be made to how their providers are measured for Category 2 calls, including putting more weight on care quality indicators and less on response time. Speaking to HSJ, Association of Ambulance Chief Executives chair Jason Killens also floated the possibility of splitting Category 2 into more and less urgent incidents, allowing the latter to have a slower response. This has not yet been formally put forward by AACE or discussed with NHSE. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 February 2026 -
Community Post
Call for participants for a study about the safety of non-conveyance
Patient Safety Learning posted a topic in Calls for research/funding opportunities
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Samantha Laws, a PhD student at Cardiff University, is conducting a study about the safety of non-conveyance. Non-conveyance is when ambulance crews attend patients when they call 999, but it is decided that they don’t need to go to the Emergency Department. She is hoping to understand more about how the process happens in clinical practice to make improvements to the ambulance service and safety for patients. If you are a clinician on an ambulance, a patient or a carer with experience of non-conveyance in the last year, Samantha would like to invite you for an interview. Find out more about the study and how to participate from the attachment below: Interview advert for clinicians, patients and carers V3_0 18102024 (1).pdf -
Content ArticleThis report is intended for healthcare organisations, healthcare staff, policymakers, higher education institutions and the public to help improve patient safety in how 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) are carried out in ambulance services. It shares findings and recommendations from an investigation that considered the use of ECGs to help identify ST elevation myocardial infarction (a type of heart attack) and the support available to ambulance crews in making this identification. This report focuses on the equipment and support systems that are used by and assist ambulance crews in diagnosing a STEMI. The findings highlight key issues concerning not only the ECG equipment’s ability to recognise a STEMI, but also the ambulance crews’ recognition and the level of clinical support available to them during interpretation. HSSIB heard from ambulance crews that it was easy to interpret an obvious or “barn door” STEMI from a 12 lead ECG. However, it was more challenging to identify one where patients had less obvious signs and symptoms. Safety recommendations HSSIB recommends that NHS Supply Chain reviews and amends the procurement framework for monitors/defibrillators to help ambulance services ensure they are fully considering the defibrillation/monitoring and cardiac diagnostic functions of the device when making purchasing decisions, to better reflect how these devices are used in practice. HSSIB recommends that NHS England/Department of Health and Social Care reviews and amends the service specification for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) centres, to include a requirement for a function enabling two-way communication with ambulance crews for shared decision making about patients with a suspected STEMI. This is to ensure that patients are taken to the correct place of care and PPCI teams are responding to confirmed STEMI cases. Safety observations Regulatory bodies can improve patient safety by supporting standardisation across manufacturers in how information from ECG traces is displayed. Manufacturers can improve patient safety by identifying the potential design barriers and enablers for ambulance crews entering information about a patient’s age or sex into a monitor/defibrillator. This could inform future device design to increase the likelihood that this information is entered when carrying out a 12-lead ECG using auto-interpretation. Algorithm developers can improve patient safety by collecting data from different ethnic groups across different geographical locations to help increase the global representation and accuracy of auto-interpretation algorithms for STEMI. Ambulance services can improve patient safety by informing regulators and manufacturers of instances where the use of monitor/defibrillators has impacted on patient safety.
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Content ArticleLord Carter’s review identifies unwarranted variation in the delivery of ambulance services, as well as the potential savings of £500 million that could be made in efficiencies by 2020/21. Following Lord Carter’s 2016 review into the operational productivity of acute non-specialists trusts, the ambulance sector requested a similar review into its services to help them understand what good looks like. As well as what improvements could be made to deliver good quality, better value services for their patients. Lord Carter has produced the report into ambulance productivity in England with nine recommendations to improve patient care, efficiency and support for frontline staff who have responded to a significant rise in demand for ambulance services in recent years. The report found that if more patients were treated at the scene by paramedics or were better assessed over the phone when dialling 999 — avoiding the need for an ambulance when it is safe to do so — the NHS could treat patients closer to home and reduce unnecessary pressure on emergency departments (EDs) and hospital beds. Offering safe and quicker care could save the NHS £300m a year by 2021, with a further £200m of savings through improvements in ambulance trusts infrastructure and staff productivity.
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Content ArticleDavid Colin Strachan was aged 76 years when he died on 16 March 2022 at his home address in Uangollen, Denbighshire. At 23.20 hours on 15 March 2022, he experienced a sudden onset of chest pain, vomiting and became clammy with shortness of breath. A number of 999 calls were made to the Welsh Ambulance Service but it was not until 9.10am, some 9 hours and 52 hours from the initial call that an ambulance and paramedics arrived. An ECG by paramedics indicated that Mr Strachan had suffered an ST elevation myocardial infarction. He was conveyed directly to the North Wales Cardiac Centre at Ysbyty Gian Clwyd and following investigations he was transferred to the Coronary Care Unit. On arrival his breathing weakened and he died at 12.27pm on 16 March 2022 in hospital. The cause of death was recorded as: 1a. Acute myocardial infarction 1b. Coronary artery atheroma. Coroner's Matters of Concern: The causes of the ambulance delay were that all available resources were managing incidents of a higher acuity or the same category but registered prior and there were significant handover delays across all BCUHB sites. The matters of concern are longstanding and multifactorial and despite proposed future action significant concerns remain. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Health Board maintain that they are continuing to work closely in border to address handover delays and yet any improvements appear extremely limiting. Deaths are occurring and will continue to occur as a result of delayed ambulance attendances caused by these multifactorial issues.
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News Article
CEO tells staff ‘silence is complicity’ after record sexual misconduct reports
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An ambulance trust has dismissed “multiple staff” for sexual misconduct offences this year following its “highest year ever for reported sexual safety incidents” in 2024, HSJ has learned. East of England Ambulance Service Trust’s chief executive Neill Moloney wrote to staff to warn them they all have a “moral obligation” to “step up when [they] see inappropriate behaviour”. In the letter, seen by HSJ, Mr Moloney said: “Silence is not neutrality. It is complicity. We all have a moral obligation to support those that experience this behaviour… If you witness or experience inappropriate sexualised behaviour, I am encouraging you to report it.” He added: “Last year alone, 44 sexual safety incidents were reported — our highest year ever for reported sexual misconduct — figures driven in part by higher reporting of incidents. “Already in 2025, we have dismissed multiple staff for sexual misconduct. This includes sexualised conversation and language in ambulances and crew rooms. This is considered sexual misconduct and we need your support to continue to eradicate this.” The trust told HSJ that four people were dismissed for sexual misconduct in 2024, and to date in 2025, a further four people have been dismissed. The concerns follow the results of the NHS Staff Survey published last month, which highlighted the depth of the sexual misconduct problems across the whole ambulance sector, with the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives calling for a “cultural reset”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 April 2025 -
News Article
Violence and abuse against ambulance staff in UK at highest level on record
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The number of violent assaults, acts of aggression and incidents of abuse against ambulance staff in the UK has risen to the highest on record, according to data health leaders described as “horrendous” and “truly shocking”. There were 22,536 incidents of violence, aggression and abuse directed at paramedics and other ambulance workers in 2024-25, up 15% on the 19,633 in 2023-24, figures from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) show. It means that each week on average those responding to 999 calls are the victims of 433 attacks, include kicking, punching, slapping, head-butting, spitting, sexual assault and verbal abuse. Senior ambulance officials said they believed the true toll was even higher, with many incidents not reported or recorded. Female paramedics and ambulance workers are the most likely to be targeted by the public. Jason Killens, the AACE chair, said: “These figures are truly shocking and reflect a pattern of increased violence, aggression and abuse directed at hard-working ambulance people who are there to help people in their times of greatest need. “Frontline staff as well as call handlers are affected by this horrendous abuse, and this unacceptable behaviour has a major long-term impact on the health and wellbeing of ambulance people who are simply trying to do their jobs and help save lives.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 April 2025 -
News Article
Crucial emergency care system to be scrapped by NHS England within months
Mark Hughes posted a news article in News
An IT system that prevents 999 call-handling services from being overwhelmed is set to be withdrawn by NHS England in an effort to save money. NHS England has confirmed it will not renew the contract for the Intelligent Routing Platform (IRP), and that the service will cease to be available within three months. NHS England now proposes that individual ambulance trusts will be responsible for tackling delays in answering calls, as was the case before the pandemic. HSJ understands that ambulance leaders are very concerned by the decision and the speed with which it is to be implemented. Read full story Source: Health Service Journal (Paywalled), 14 April 2025 -
News Article
Ambulance services hit key recovery target
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance services hit a crucial “interim” target for responding to the bulk of emergency calls last month, and showed marked improvements for the most serious category of incidents. Offering a glimmer of hope after another winter of long ambulance waits, average category 2 performance in March was 28:34 (minutes, seconds) – more than five minutes better than March last year. It is only the third time it has dipped below 30 minutes, which has been set by government as an “interim” recovery target, since December 2022. Waits have soared since the covid-19 pandemic, fuelled by long hospital handover delays, and a string of inquests have highlighted the calamitous impact on patients. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 April 2025 -
News ArticleParamedics across England are watching patients die in the back of ambulances because of delays outside emergency departments, according to a survey by Unison. The gridlock of patients in some of the country’s hospitals has led to queues of up to 20 ambulances outside casualty departments in certain areas. In a number of cases, crews have been forced to wait more than 12 hours before handing over patients. The survey of nearly 600 ambulance workers reveals the toll of the waits on patients and the crews looking after them. Unison warns that “car park care” is increasingly becoming the norm, with hospital medical staff tending to patients in the back of ambulances. More than three-quarters (77%) of paramedics and emergency medical technicians said they have had to look after people in the back of ambulances in the past year while stuck outside emergency departments. Two-thirds (68%) have waited in hospital corridors, or in other locations, with one paramedic often caring for several patients to allow colleagues to respond to other calls. More than two-thirds also reported patients’ health deteriorating during long waits, and one in 20 (5%) said people have died in their care because of long delays in being admitted. Gavin Taylor, 58, a Unison representative and ambulance worker in the north-west of England, said it was now a regular occurrence to be waiting several hours to hand over a patient. He said: “It’s heartbreaking because we are here as a caring profession and the delays have an impact on the care and wellbeing of patients.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2025
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News Article
Staffing vital to high hear and treat rates, say trusts
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Some 30,000 emergency ambulance trips could be avoided every month if trusts provided more advice over the phone, according to NHS England figures. The proportion of emergency calls dealt with through hear and treat ranges from more than 20 per cent at the best-performing trusts to less than half that in other areas. Typically, this involves patients being given advice such as self-care, seeing a GP or pharmacist, or being directed to an alternative pathway for urgent care. Based on February’s figures, released by NHS England, an additional 30,000 patients could have been seen if every trust matched the performance of West Midlands Ambulance Service University Foundation Trust and London Ambulance Service Trust, both of which dealt with 20.6 per cent of patients in this way. London Ambulance Service Trust has managed more than one in five patients through hear and treat while seeing an additional 500 to 520 calls each day this winter. Michael Ward, deputy director of clinical safety and compliance at LAS, told HSJ the initiative had helped lessen demand on hospitals. He said the trust had boosted recruitment of both band 6 clinical advisers and band 7 clinical support managers, to support control room staff. Advice to control room staff on the most clinically appropriate pathway is readily available, including a 24/7 clinical safety officer. The trust has also worked to make these roles attractive for staff, with the provision of training and development plus timely feedback on decisions, he said, adding that the roles were attractive to paramedics who no longer want the physical strain of frontline work. “I think there is scope for more hear and treat,” Mr Ward said. “There is a natural ceiling but I don’t think we have reached it yet.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 19 March 2025 -
News ArticleA 35-year-old man from Cardiff died after collapsing at home despite his mother and brother trying to give him CPR. Martyn Wright collapsed at home, and it has since been found that there were errors in the way his family's calls to the ambulance service were handled. Martyn's mum, Claire, claimed that calling 999 was a "lottery". In a statement to WalesOnline, she, said: "Through lived experience, we have learned our 999 emergency service cannot be relied upon even when there is clearly an immediate risk to life, it's now quite simply a lottery. An ambulance initially allocated to attend my son who collapsed at home suddenly in December, 2022, was stood down in error by a novice 999 call-handler, this caused a significant delay to him receiving vital treatment. "Despite our younger son performing CPR on his unconscious brother, when they did arrive 45 minutes later as a result of a follow up call made by myself, Martyn was tragically beyond help." Martyn's case was referred to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, who has found there were errors in the handling of his case. On the day of his collapse, Martyn was at home with his mum and brother. Two 999 calls were made. The first call was incorrectly downgraded from a red priority to "green 2". The second call was also not handled appropriately, with incorrect information given to Mrs Wright about resuscitation. As a result, the ambulance arrived 32 minutes late. Through it all, Mrs Wright and her son were, the report said, "attempting to deliver CPR without instruction or support". Mrs Wright complained about how the calls were handled, how the attending paramedics kept a record of events and whether the outcome for Martyn would have been different had the ambulance arrived earlier. The ombudsman found that the Welsh Ambulance Service trust did not properly manage the two 999 calls made after Martyn had collapsed. Read full story Source: Wales Online, 18 March 2025
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News Article
Ambulance services underprepared for ‘mass casualty incidents’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ambulance services would still struggle to respond effectively to a mass-casualty event like the Manchester Arena bombing, HSJ has learned, as nearly all have been denied the funding needed to bolster preparedness. The public inquiry report on the May 2017 attack, which killed 22, was sharply critical of the emergency services’ response, including North West Ambulance Service Trust. The inquiry’s November 2022 report made nearly 150 recommendations to prepare for future attacks. Crucially, ambulance trusts were told to review their capacity to respond to a mass-casualty incident – including whether they had enough trained specialist staff – then tell commissioners what extra funding they need to ”respond effectively”. Gaps identified included the availability of 24/7 “critical care cars”, specialist practitioners in hazardous area response teams, and tactical commanders in operations centres. But eight out of England’s 10 ambulance trusts have confirmed to HSJ – through Freedom of Information requests and follow-up enquiries – that they have not received funding from commissioners to cover what they found was needed. HSJ understands that, while some trusts have strengthened specialist teams using other income, they have not received funding for the majority of what the reviews said was needed, and there are therefore still significant gaps in readiness. Read full story (paywalled) Source: 14 February 2025 -
News Article
NHS 111 firm admits fault for not sending ambulance to baby who later died
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A private call handling firm operating the NHS 111 non-emergency service has admitted it was at fault for failing to send an ambulance to a baby boy who died shortly after falling ill, an inquest has heard. Ben Condon, who was born premature, died aged two months at Bristol children’s hospital in April 2015 after developing a respiratory illness. A first inquest into his death ruled that Ben died as a result of acute respiratory distress syndrome, human metapneumovirus and prematurity but the conclusion was quashed by high court judges. On Monday, a fresh inquest opened into Ben’s death and heard that when the child went home to Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, with his parents he developed a cold. His father, Allyn Condon, rang the non-emergency 111 service – run at the time by Care UK – at about 6pm on 10 April. The call handler referred Ben for an out-of-hours telephone call-back appointment with a GP within two hours rather than send an ambulance, a decision the coroner said was affected by “bias” as the handler was aware of “external pressures” facing ambulances. The court heard that by 7.45pm when Condon and his wife, Jenny, had not received the call from the GP, they took their son to the Weston general hospital. Reading from a written statement, the assistant coroner Robert Sowersby said Care UK had apologised to the Condon family and the adviser was taken off calls for nearly three weeks and received further training. “Care UK admitted it was at fault for having not sent an ambulance after the call,” Sowersby said. “It said that changes in the recordings of telephone calls needed to be made and apologised for their failings. “Care UK identified in the root cause analysis that the health adviser failed to actively listen and failed to accept the responses provided and there was a failure to select the appropriate pathway responses.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 February 2025 -
Content ArticleFour enablers of effective collaboration between integrated care systems and ambulance services. Key points England’s ten ambulance trusts occupy a unique position in serving large health populations, each spanning footprints of multiple integrated care systems. In the context of system working and place-based models of care, ambulance trusts are negotiating emerging systems within their geographic remit, adopting new ways of working to meet the needs of diverse systems across the populations they serve. With the move away from clinical commissioning groups to the new integrated care system framework, many want to see a rethink in how systems engage with their ambulance trusts to ensure co-design and co-production from their services as part of a holistic strategy for population health. To support this, NHS Confederation interviewed a range of NHS leaders from both integrated care boards and ambulance services to explore how they might evolve their relationship, and to examine the principles that underpin effective and practical collaboration. Interviewees identified four key priorities for effective collaboration: thinking creatively about the role of the ambulance service; focusing on data sharing; fostering cultures of collaborative planning; and nurturing relationships. By focusing on these four areas, system and ambulance service leaders can design arrangements and relationships that deliver vast improvements to their population’s health in the years ahead. Interviewees made practical recommendations for national and local partners about how this can be achieved. These include expediting the implementation of Provider Selection Regime; where appropriate, developing multi-ICB governance structures; and considering how ambulance service data can be used at neighbourhood, place, system, regional and national levels to maximise its impact.
