The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has suspended an independent ambulance service based in Great Yarmouth, following an inspection undertaken in September that led to the service being rated inadequate.
CQC inspected Grange Farm, a patient transport service run by Ikon Ambulance Services Ltd, to assess concerns about the quality and safety of its care.
In addition to rating it inadequate overall following the inspection, CQC rated it inadequate for being safe, effective and well-led. It rated it requires improvement for being responsive to people’s needs, but it did not rate it for being caring as there was insufficient evidence to judge this.
Due to serious issues in the service, CQC suspended it for 12 weeks. This means it cannot provide regulated care and treatment to anyone until the suspension is lifted.
CQC will not lift the suspension unless it is assured the service can provide safe care and treatment to people.
Zoe Robinson, CQC head of hospital inspection, said:
“When we aren’t assured people can be cared for safely, we don’t hesitate to act.
“Grange Farm’s operating procedures were unfit for purpose, which exposed people using it to an unacceptable risk of avoidable harm.
“We found it didn’t consider the specific needs of people living with mental health problems, learning disabilities and dementia.
“We also found its vehicles were unclean, which exposed people to an increased risk of infection.
“Behind this was the failure of its leaders to understand the service’s issues and develop strategies for improvement.
“We reported our findings to Ikon Ambulance Services Ltd, so its leaders know where improvement is needed.
“We will inspect the service again to assess whether it has made progress, but we won’t allow it to provide care and treatment to people unless we’re assured it can do so safely.”
The inspection found:
- Safety systems, processes and standard operating procedures were unfit for purpose
- The service did not evidence its staff had training in key skills, neither could it evidence staff could protect patients from abuse
- The service did not control infection risk well and staff did not assess all risks to patients
- Medicines were not managed well
- Safety incidents were not managed well or used to drive learning. Staff did not collect safety information to improve the service
- Response times or the effectiveness of the service were not monitored
- Managers could not evidence that staff were competent, and staff were not supervised or managed effectively
- Patients’ individual needs were not considered
- There was no stable leadership team
- Leaders did not have the necessary experience, knowledge, capacity, capability or integrity to lead effectively. There were limited examples of leaders making a demonstrable impact on the quality or sustainability of the service
- Leaders did not use reliable information systems to help them run the service well, nor did they support their staff to develop their skills.
However:
- Key services were available seven days a week
- There were adequate supplies of personal protective equipment at the base and within vehicles
- There was enough suitable equipment, including defibrillation equipment and manual handling aids
- The service had enough staff to care for patients.