19 February 2020
During a routine inspection
LCT Ambulance Ltd is operated by LCT Ambulance Ltd. The service provides a patient transport service.
We carried out a short notice announced inspection of the service using our comprehensive inspection methodology on 16, 18 and 20 December 2019. During this inspection significant concerns were identified in relation to regulatory compliance. A notice under Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 was serviced on the provider suspending registration as a service provider of a patient transport service from 24 December 2019 to 21 February 2020.
We carried out a short notice announced focused follow up inspection of the service on 19 February 2020. This inspection focused on the issues highlighted in the Section 31 notice under the key questions safe, effective and well led. Following this inspection, the suspension was extended until 16 May 2020 as the issues identified at the previous inspection that had led to the suspension of the service had not all been addressed.
We did not rate the service; this inspection was a focused follow up to assess the provider’s progress against concerns identified in Section 31 notice.
We did not find evidence that significant improvement had taken place and found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:
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We were still not assured the registered manager had the qualifications, competence, skills and experience which are necessary to manage and develop the service.
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We were still not assured that care and treatment was provided in a safe way for service users and that the service did all that was reasonably practical to mitigate risks.
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We were still not assured that all premises and equipment used were clean and properly maintained.
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Systems and processes were still not established or in place to identify risk, manage performance and ensure governance of the service was followed. The provider had not taken action to address the concerns identified in the previous report.
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We were still not assured employees of the service received appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal as is necessary to enable them to carry out the duties they were employed to perform.
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There was still a lack of effective recruitment procedures, and we were not assured employees were subject to the necessary background checks in line with the provider’s policy
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We were still not assured the provider would act in an open transparent way with relevant persons in relation to care and treatment provided to service users in carrying on a regulated activity.
Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations to help the service improve. We also issued the provider with seven requirement notices that affected patient transport services. Details are at the end of the report.
We did not rate this service following this inspection as we did not look at all key questions.
Nigel Acheson
Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (area of responsibility), on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals