Background to this inspection
Updated
8 July 2021
Devon Freewheelers are based in Devon and are registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide a patient transport service. They have a mixture of volunteers and paid staff. The service operates 24 hours a day seven days a week.
This location is registered to provide the following regulated activity:
Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.
Devon Freewheelers was registered with the CQC in February 2020. The registered manager has remained in post since the date of registration.
The service was not able to provide information about the number of patient transport journeys they have undertaken since they were registered.
This is the first inspection of this location since being registered with the CQC.
Updated
8 July 2021
We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Devon Freewheelers on 29 & 30 April 2021 due to concerns raised. We inspected our five key questions: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.
This is the first inspection for this service since it was registered with CQC in February 2020. Before the inspection, we reviewed information we had about the provider, including information we had received and intelligence available.
Our inspection was unannounced to enable us to observe routine activity. We have rated the service at this inspection; however, we did not have sufficient evidence to rate caring.
Action we have taken against the provider of this service
We served an urgent suspension notice on the registration of Devon Freewheelers. This is because we believed that a person would or may be exposed to the risk of harm if we did not take this action.
We rated Devon Freewheelers as inadequate because:
The service was providing some regulated activities they were not registered for, and staff had no training to make sure they were safe to do this. Staff had no training in key skills, or understanding how to protect patients from abuse, and safety was not managed. Staff did not assess risks to patients, so any risks were not identified or acted on. Patients' records lacked details about their needs and no assessments were carried out to determine any risks during transfer. Equipment was not stored safely, and there were no warning signs to identify risks to staff and visitors. Patient transport vehicles and some of the equipment stored on them were not clean and they did not have valid insurance cover. The service had not reported an outbreak of COVID-19 to another regulatory body as required. Safety incidents were not managed well. Staff reports were incomplete, and these were not reviewed by senior staff to see if any lessons needed to be learned and shared with staff. Staff did not collect safety information to improve the service.
Managers did not monitor the effectiveness of the service. Staff were not appraised and did not have access to ongoing training programmes based on their need to develop their individual skills. There was no induction programme to guide staff and support them when starting work for this service. Staff were not assessed for their competency to undertake their role or to make sure they were competent. Staff did not have access to any guidance on how to support patients to make decisions about their care.
Staff did not consider patients’ individual needs or provide any aids to assist them. There was no procedure or policy for patients or their family/carers to make a complaint about the service.
Leaders did not have the skills or knowledge to run their service. Information was not obtained to demonstrate the senior leadership team were fit and proper persons to oversee the running of the service. There were no reliable information systems to monitor the service provision or to identify risks and actions needed to address these. The service had no vision or values, and therefore no strategy to develop. The service did not have systems to engage with staff or patients to enable them to give feedback about the service.
However:
The service had enough staff as they operated on an as when required basis. The service had implemented some systems to control infection risk. Restrictions had been introduced to minimise the risk of infection from COVID-19, but these were not always followed. Visitors to the location had to complete a questionnaire to check their risk of COVID-19 to prevent risks to their staff.
Whilst the service had no documented assessment to assess patients’ food and drink requirements, staff offered water during long journeys. Patients were able to eat food provided to them by other sources during their transfer.
The service worked to the timescales given to them by the provider requesting the transport. But documented evidence was not maintained to demonstrate this.