News

The Communiqué - Issue No 9 - April 2010

Into An Era Of Compliance and Stronger Governance

Medical Services has moved into the next stage of its five year programme of expansion which reaches across all areas of the organisation, Joe Sheehan, managing director, told an internal senior executives meeting today (16th April).

“As a result of the savings realised in administration and back office functions, we are now able to re-direct resources and recruit more specialist staff with key skills to provide a more thorough compliance regime in preparation for CQC registration”, he said.

Mr Sheehan queried the transparency of the CQC set-up adding: “Ambulance Trusts will receive a rating for similar core competencies but independent providers will not. If the CQC is not satisfied with the quality or safety of an independent provider they have the right of sanction, which is quite proper, but if they find the provider is ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ they intend not to reveal this. This does not look like a level playing field”.

Having questioned CQC staff directly earlier this week on the issue of transparency as well as the eternal question of a nationally agreed standard of training for PTS staff, Joe reported "They agreed that nothing is in place regarding training standards  but it is not the job of the CQC to set these standards. Maybe the ‘industry; should do more to help itself! I think they may have a point”.

Welcome To New Colleagues

 

Anticipating the future regulatory needs of the Care Quality Commission and continuing growth of the business, the company has strengthened its team of senior staff.

Pictured left to right are: Deena Sreedharan who has joined from the Department of Health as Executive Assistant/Company Secretary; Anita Killian, Implementation Manager who has 20 years’ experience in the public and private sector of the ambulance service; David Harris Compliance Manager, a qualified paramedic, with eights years professional experience in the Royal Australian Navy and clinical placements in civilian hospitals and with ambulance services; Kasia Dziubinska and Heather Newmarch who have both joined the financial management team.

Training Growth
 

Recently appointed as an official training centre for Edexcel, the UK’s largest awarding body of skills qualifications, Medical Services is now extending development programmes to a wider range of roles throughout the organisation.

In April 67 staff were awarded their NVQ driving qualification. 13 colleagues passed the Station Managers examination (pictured below) as well as 28 IHCD First Person on Scene qualifications and 8 new EMT’s passed out. Congratulations to all.
 

Quality Standard Achievements

We are now one of the few independent transport services providers to the NHS to achieve the four major quality standard accreditations:

• ISO 9001 for Internal Quality Management
• ISO 14001 for Internal Environmental Management Systems
• ISO 27001 for Information Security Management Systems
• BS 25999 for Business Continuity Planning & IT Disaster Recovery

The latest certificates were presented earlier this week by Peter Carvin of QMS International plc, the leading quality assessment and certification organisation (centre) to Joe Sheehan, Managing Director (left) and David Ellis, Director of Organisational Development (right).

Flexible Vehicle Policy
 

The company has continued its long-term policy for ambulance procurement based on flexibility, efficiency and above all else, patient safety.

It recently took delivery of new HDU vehicles which have all been purpose-built by O&H of Goole, to carry stretchers capable of moving bariatric patients, mechanical stair climbers and NMI wheelchair restraints – and will also be able to safely carry incubators for new born babies.

These were the first vehicles in a multi-million pound order, with the balance of 20 vehicles being delivered and put into operation before October and the onset of winter pressures.

“Centres of Excellence” Expansion

Central to the company’s future development plan is the creation of “centres of excellence” - integrated ambulance stations where management and staff will work more closely together.

Work is already under way in developing two 24/7 'centres of excellence', one East in Bow and one in West London in Alperton. The company is investing £500,000 in building a control centre at Alperton, upgrading Bow and also Luton, the third “centre of excellence”.

New Ambulance Service

An Intermediate Care Ambulance Transfer Service has been introduced by the organisation for all NHS hospitals in central London. It has been designed to meet a rising demand, particularly late in the day and during the night, for on transfers between hospitals.

Additional staff have been trained for the new (ICATS) transfer service which is offering a 60 minute response time24/7; it includes an advanced criteria based screening process at the time of booking and we are the delighted to be the first independent sector service to deliver this enhancement.