Quality Account
| June 2014
Page | 1
Contents
Page
Part One
1.1
Introduction and Statement of Quality
3
1.2
Statement of Accuracy
5
Part Two
2.1
Priorities for 2014/15
6
2.2
Statements of Assurance
9
2.3
What Others Say
11
2.4
Data Quality
12
Part Three
3.1
Review of Quality Performance
13
3.1.1 Patient Safety
13
3.1.2 Patient Experience
16
3.2
Statements from Clinical Commissioning Groups,
Healthwatch and Overview & Scrutiny Committees
20
3.3
Feedback
24
Page | 2
Part One
1.1 Introduction and Statement of Quality from UK
Managing Director, on behalf of the Board of Directors
I am extremely pleased to present Arriva Transport Solutions’ first Quality Account for
2013/14. Arriva Transport Solutions is a leading provider of specialist transport solutions for
the health and social care sector, delivering services on behalf of the local NHS.
Undertaking 1.4 million patient journeys across the UK a year, our health transport arm
operates from 5 control centres, 26 ambulance bases plus additional satellite locations,
using a variety of vehicles including seated, stretcher, wheelchair, bariatric ambulances and
cars.
Established in 2011, Arriva Transport Solutions (ATSL) has had an exciting journey so far.
Following Arriva’s acquisition of Ambuline, a private ambulance provider operating in the
Midlands for nearly 30 years, Arriva Transport Solutions has grown into a thriving business,
employing over 1000 people. In July 2012, ATSL acquired Ambuline Ltd as a wholly owned
subsidiary.
The Quality Account aims to provide information about the quality of our services, outline
where improvements have been made across the business and demonstrate our
commitment to remain accountable to not only those who commission our services, but also
to the stakeholders and users of our service.
Quality is at the heart of what we do at Arriva Transport Solutions and over the last six
months we have made some important changes at a senior level within the business to
ensure we continue to drive up performance in this area. A dedicated Operations Director
and a Director for Governance & Quality, have been appointed to the Board of Directors.
These appointments have brought a stronger focus within the organisation to ensure that
quality and operational excellence is embedded at every level of the business.
We have worked closely with the Commissioning Quality Leads on all aspects of quality and
are absolutely committed to delivering an excellent level of service to our patients in a safe
and caring environment. We are also strengthening the ways in which we evidence and
demonstrate this in line with the NHS.
The expanded Governance and Quality team has already implemented a number of
changes to ensure more robust and consistent systems are in place to comply with our
responsibilities. These have followed a review of our Incident Management System and
Complaints Processes and an audit of our infection control policies.
Alongside this, we have developed an employee engagement strategy. The strategy
includes strong training and development plans to enhance the training levels of our already
highly skilled staff and provide a career development pathway for those who wish to
progress. The strategy also focusses on rewarding and recognising our people who deliver
excellent levels of service as well as increased opportunities for staff to feedback their views
on the service we deliver.
Page | 3
Our stakeholder communications and engagement programme ensures that we balance the
needs of all our key stakeholders, without compromising the needs of one over the other,
building mutually beneficial relationships that create value for all stakeholders. By
measuring satisfaction levels and gaining patient feedback from our service users, the
business can understand and act upon the areas of improvement that it needs to make and
can track the progress of these changes. Our patient experience programme helps us to
monitor this.
This year has been a busy and exciting one for us and we have worked closely with all our
NHS commissioners and wider stakeholders to significantly enhance the service we deliver
to our patients. Our response times have improved across all our operating areas and we
have transported more patients in shorter times than ever before. We are focussed on this
continuous improvement and I hope that the Quality Account demonstrates this commitment.
We would really value your feedback on this Quality Account. If you have any comments or
require any more information please contact Director of Governance & Quality, Paul Willetts
on paul.willetts@arriva.co.uk or 0191 520 4226.
Jonathan May, UK Managing Director
Page | 4
1.2 Statement of Accuracy from Director Of Governance &
Quality
In preparing our Quality Account, the Director of Governance & Quality has ensured that:




the performance information reported in the Quality Account is reliable and accurate;
there are proper internal controls over the collection and reporting of the measures of
performance included in the Quality Account, and these controls are regularly
reviewed to confirm that they are working effectively in practice;
the data underpinning the measures of performance reported in the Quality Account
is robust and reliable, conforms to specified data quality standards and prescribed
definitions, is subject to appropriate scrutiny and review; and
the Quality Account has been prepared in accordance with NHS guidance.
The Director Of Governance & Quality confirms to the best of his knowledge and belief that
he has complied with these requirements in preparing this Quality Account. This has been
confirmed through validation with the Board.
Paul Willetts, Director of Governance & Quality
Page | 5
Part Two
2.1 Priorities for 2014/15
ATSL’s priorities for improvement in 2014/15 are set out below. Progress on all priorities will
be monitored by and reported to the Board of Directors by the Director of Governance &
Quality.
Priority One – Patient Safety
Patient safety is our priority. Adverse incidents have the potential to affect the safety of our
staff and all those we come into contact with. Through understanding more about the types
of incidents that occur and the trends surrounding them, we can better plan and mitigate
risks to avoid such events occurring and therefore improve the quality of service delivered.
This involves effective reporting, full analysis of the type of incidents that occur and
identifying the trends surrounding them. We have amended this priority in line with feedback
provided by NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group.
Our priority
To improve the
quality and format
of
information
received
through
our
incident
management
systems that will
enable better and
consistent analysis
of
themes
and
trends.
This will
influence decision
making on policies
and processes in
order to mitigate
risks.
Why we have chosen
this as a priority
The
process
of
identifying, recording,
reporting,
investigating,
and
learning
from
incidents was in
need of review and a
consistent
application of the
process across all
areas of our service.
This will go hand in
hand
with
an
awareness campaign
to ensure a culture
that is aware of its
We will achieve this responsibility.
by
implementing
improvements
to We appreciate that
our
incident the
number
of
management
incidents/near
systems to ensure a misses reported may
robust
and increase with better
consistent process awareness and this
for the reporting, is
welcomed
to
recording
and enable
better
investigation
of analysis of themes
incidents
through and trends.
the
revised
framework.
Page | 6
Who
will
be
responsible for this
Director
of
Governance
&
Quality
How we will measure
this
The number and type
of incidents will be
monitored
via
detailed analysis of
reports through our
internal compliance
group structure and
scrutiny through NHS
commission quality
groups.
Information collected
during the first 6
months of the new
process
will
formulate
the
baseline
for
measuring
our
improvements.
Logs
will
be
maintained
of
themes/trends
identified along with
the
mitigation
including changes to
policy/processes.
Priority Two – Clinical Effectiveness
Our staff are influential in terms of delivering a quality service and we must ensure we
provide them with the right training essential to develop and maintain their skills in the
delivery of patient transport services. Staff training is essential to delivering an effective
service and to enhance the patient experience.
Our priority
To enhance our
staff
training
program to include:
BTEC
Level
2
Customer Services
to
all
frontline
ambulance staff
VRQ level 2 in
Transporting
Patients by Road
which includes the
qualification
Ambulance Driving
Non-Emergency
VRQ Level 2 in
Infection Control
Page | 7
Why we have chosen Who
will
be
this as a priority
responsible for this
This will significantly HR Director
improve the training
levels of our already
highly skilled staff
and provide a career
development
pathway for those
who
wish
to
progress. This will
have a direct impact
on staff morale as
well as capability and
in turn improve the
quality
of
care
provided
to
our
patients
How we will measure
this
Compliance
with
delivery
of
the
enhanced
training
modules as follows:
100%
of
new
operational staff from
July 2014. This will
be monitored by
comparing
the
number
of
new
starters to training
completion records
50%
of
existing
operational
workforce. This will
be monitored by
comparing
the
number of existing
staff
to
training
completion records
Priority Three & Four – Patient Experience
ATSL recognises that patient feedback is vital. We aim to deliver a caring, quality service
that meets the needs of our patients and stakeholders and contributes to a positive patient
experience throughout their health journey. We have introduced a new role of ‘Patient
Experience Manager’ with an objective to implement improved processes to capture, review
and report feedback that can be used to drive improvements to the patient’s experience.
Our priority
Why we have chosen
this as a priority
To increase the Gaining
more
amount of patient feedback from the
feedback we gather users of our service
will enable us to
focus improvements
on the areas that
matter the most to
patients.
To improve patient
experience
by
implementing
improvements
to
our
Complaints
policy
and
processes
Page | 8
Who
will
be
responsible for this
Head
of
Communications &
Engagement
Learning from our Director
complaints
is Governance
imperative
to Quality
improve our patient
experience.
Improvements to the
process will ensure
easier identification
of
themes
and
trends.
How we will measure
this
Response rate of
patient surveys.
Feedback
trends,
positive and negative
areas.
Response rate and
types of feedback
gathered through the
Patient
Feedback
smartphone app.
of Number and type of
& complaints monitored
via a complaints
dashboard. This will
be triangulated with
patient
survey
information. Trends
will be identified and
monitored
through
compliance forums to
identify areas for
improvement.
2.2 Statements of assurance from the Board
Review of Services
During 2013/14 Arriva Transport Solutions provided Non-Emergency Patient Transport
Services in the following areas:













Chesterfield Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust
Dudley
Sheffield (PTS & GP urgent transport)
Rotherham
Leicestershire
Nottinghamshire
Greater Manchester
Bath and North East Somerset
Swindon
Wiltshire
Gloucestershire.
In July 2012, ATSL acquired Ambuline Ltd as a wholly owned subsidiary and subcontracts
some of its Patient Transport services to Ambuline.
Arriva Transport Solutions has reviewed all the data available on the quality of care in all
these areas.
The income generated by the NHS services reviewed in 2013/14 represents 100 per cent of
the total income generated from the provision of NHS services by ATSL for 2013/14.
Participation in Clinical Audits
During 2013/14, no national clinical audits and no national confidential enquiries covered
NHS services that ATSL provides.
During that period ATSL was not eligible to participate in any national clinical audits or any
national confidential enquiries of the national clinical audits.
As ATSL was ineligible to participate in any national clinical audits and national confidential
enquiries, no data collection was completed during 2013/14, and therefore no cases were
submitted for audit or enquiry as a percentage of the number of registered cases required by
the terms of the audit or enquiry.
As no national clinical audits covered the services provided by ATSL no reports of national
clinical audits were able to be reviewed by the provider in 2013/14 and no actions to improve
the quality of healthcare provided could be identified.
Page | 9
Local Audits
ATSL undertakes rolling audits in areas associated with:



Infection Prevention and Control
Health and safety
Care Quality Commission compliance
Audit schedules are maintained and reviewed monthly by our compliance teams and
reported to the Board by the Director of Governance & Quality.
Research
Arriva Transport Solutions did not recruit any of its patients receiving NHS services provided
or sub-contracted by ATSL in 2013/14 to participate in research approved by a research
ethics committee.
Use of the CQUIN payment framework
A proportion of ATSL’s income in 2013/14 was conditional on achieving quality improvement
and innovation goals agreed between ATSL and any person or body they entered into a
contract, agreement or arrangement with for the provision of NHS services, through the
Commissioning for Quality and Innovation payment framework.
These schemes included introduction of the Friends & Family Test and an introduction of a
Tablets to Take Out Scheme. Further details of the outcomes from these CQUIN schemes
and the agreed goals for Arriva Transport Solutions for 2014/15 are available electronically
by emailing arrivatransportsolutions@arriva.co.uk.
Page | 10
2.3
What others say about Arriva Transport Solutions
Statements from the CQC
ATSL is required to register with the Care Quality Commission and its current registration
status is for ‘Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.’ ATSL has the
following conditions on registration - none
The Care Quality Commission has not taken enforcement action against ATSL during
2013/14.
ATSL has participated in special reviews or investigations by the Care Quality Commission
relating to the following areas during 2013/14:





London - Canning Town – 20th March 2014
Manchester – Oldham – 11th February 2014
Birmingham – 6th February 2014
Dudley – 6th February 2014
Nottinghamshire – 7th January 2014.
Page | 11
2.4 Data Quality
Our Business Information and Systems team will provide monthly data quality reports to help
managers monitor and improve reporting and data quality within their teams. Arriva
Transport Solutions will be taking the following actions to improve data quality:


Review the technology devices that are used to record patient journey times. Once
reviewed, additional training will be provided where needed and technological issues
will be fixed. Frontline staff will be engaged within this process to assess their
requirements.
We collect data to enable us to carry out our patient transport service activities and
for statutory and contractual reporting purposes. Our organisation will use statistics
from this data to understand the activity and ensure our resources are appropriately
aligned to provide a quality service. Access to credible information will ensure this is
effective.
Data is handled in accordance with strict information security controls.
NHS Number and General Medical Practice Code Validity Information
ATSL did not submit records during 2013/14 to the Secondary Uses service for inclusion in
the Hospital Episode Statistics which are included in the latest published data.
Information Governance Toolkit attainment levels
Arriva Transport Solutions’ Information Governance Assessment Report overall score for
2013/14 was 66% and was graded satisfactory
Clinical Coding error rate
ATSL was not subject to the Payment by Results clinical coding audit during 2013/14 by the
Audit Commission.
Page | 12
Part Three
3.1 Review of Quality Performance
The review of quality performance contained within our first quality account represents
statistics pertaining to the organisation as a whole.
Through the implementation of improved and consistent recording and reporting methods
and by working closely with our stakeholders, we will ensure that our review of quality
performance in future quality accounts is broken down further to include regions and other
priorities. We are committed to present the information in an agreed manner that is clear
and meaningful to the reader.
3.1.1 Patient Safety
Health & Safety
Arriva Transport Solutions recognises and accepts its responsibilities under the Health &
Safety at Work Act 1974, applicable regulations and all other relevant legislation to
undertake all reasonable steps to protect the health safety and welfare of staff, patients and
members of the public. The Managing Director assumes overall responsibility for health &
safety and delegates to each operational Head of Service administration and implementation
of all policies and procedures within their area of responsibility.
Arriva Transport Solutions will ensure that:




Health & Safety issues and considerations are adequately resourced.
An appropriate organisational structure is established that supports a safety culture
and management of risk throughout the business operations with full engagement of
employees.
A systematic approach is employed to the identification of risk and the
implementation of suitable and sufficient control measures to manage and minimise
those risks.
It provides adequate arrangements for local and organisational learning from all
incidents, accidents and near misses identified within the business.
Page 13 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
Arriva Transport Solutions requires its employees to:






Take all reasonable steps to protect their own safety and the safety of others who
may be affected by their acts or omissions.
Co-operate fully with management in all aspects of health & safety policy and
procedure, this shall include all employees, volunteers and salaried staff.
To follow all work instructions, safety rules and regulations as directed by Arriva
Transport Solutions.
Not to interfere with any piece of equipment provided for health, safety or welfare of
themselves or others.
Undertake any health & safety training provided as appropriate for their role
Report any incidents, hazardous conditions or near misses immediately to their
immediate supervisor.
In 2013/14 ATSL made the following statutory submissions to the HSE under RIDDOR:
RIDDOR
Reports
Total no
of
PTS
Journeys
2013/14
Apr
2013
May
2013
Jun
2013
Jul
2013
Aug
2013
Sep
2013
Oct
2013
Nov
2013
Dec
2013
Jan
2014
Feb
2014
Mar
2014
0
1
0
2
1
2
0
0
0
2
4
2
73617
76281
71213
82872
78113
78118
85434
80745
91336
102499
92888
96551
The majority of RIDDOR reports we have made relate to notification of an over 7-day
absence of an employee following an injury.
Incidents
An ‘incident’ is an event or circumstance which resulted in unnecessary damage, loss or
harm to a patient, staff member, visitor or member of the public. Staff are encouraged to
report all incidents, whether major or minor.
Incidents are investigated to resolve the immediate issues and recorded/reported to the
Quality teams to identify themes and trends that need to be addressed through changes in
policies and/or procedures.
ATSL also complies with the requirements under the NHS Serious Incident Management
Framework.
During the first part of 2014, a revised incident management framework was implemented
across ATSL, which included a revised policy as well as supporting documentation and a
range of reporting forms. Prior to implementation this was subject to internal and external
consultation.
Page 14 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
All incidents are now consistently logged across all business areas and reported monthly
through the production of a monthly summary per contract area.
Through understanding more about the types of incidents that occur and the trends
surrounding them, we can better plan and risk-assess our service to minimise such events.
The number of incidents recorded by ATSL in 2013/14 were:
New
Incidents
Reported
Total no of
PTS
Journeys
2013/14
Apr
2013
13
May
2013
9
Jun
2013
11
Jul
2013
28
Aug
2013
24
Sep
2013
15
Oct
2013
30
Nov
2013
20
Dec
2013
23
Jan
2014
33
Feb
2014
28
Mar
2014
33
73617
76281
71213
82872
78113
78118
85434
80745
91336
102499
92888
96551
The highest number of incidents relate to vehicle accidents.
Near Misses
Near misses are where an incident has been avoided either by good fortune or due to the
intervention of staff.
The number of near misses recorded by ATSL in 2013/14 were:
New Near
Misses
Reported
Total no of
PTS
Journeys
2013/14
Apr
2013
0
May
2013
3
Jun
2013
3
Jul
2013
5
Aug
2013
2
Sep
2013
3
Oct
2013
2
Nov
2013
0
Dec
2013
4
Jan
2014
7
Feb
2014
12
Mar
2014
21
73617
76281
71213
82872
78113
78118
85434
80745
91336
102499
92888
96551
Clinical Effectiveness
Arriva Transport Solutions recognises the need to provide effective training to all its
employees prior to exposure into the healthcare environment and during the course of
employment.
As part of our induction programme, new employees are inducted into the Company over a
period of two weeks where specific developmental training is undertaken. Every new Patient
Transport Services (PTS) Care Assistant will be provided with a mentor to enable them to be
supported as they become accustomed to working within Arriva Transport Solutions.
Page 15 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
All PTS employees are provided with annual mandatory training to ensure their skills are
current and they are competent to undertake the work activities.
In addition, periodic reviews are used to identify training needs, which are then formulated
into an employee’s personal development plan (PDP).
In order to enhance personal contribution to the business, it may be appropriate for some
individuals to undertake extracurricular Developmental Training and/or Further Education.
The developmental criteria will be determined following recruitment or their 1-2-1 objective
meeting which may result in the formulation of a personal development plan.
3.1.2 Patient Experience
Complaints
ATSL is committed in getting patient feedback from all sources and through varied channels
and we actively encourage this. Where we receive commendations, those comments are
passed to the team members and are acknowledged by the Heads of Service for the good
work.
ATSL provided around 1 million journeys for patients in 2013/14 taking them to their NHS
treatment centres in a timely manner, in a safe and caring environment. Sometimes we get
things wrong and this is where we strive to improve. Through our dedicated Patient
Experience Team we ensure that those experiences are raised and listened to.
Complaints, concerns, comments and compliments are all handled through the central
Patient Experience Team and acted upon according to the level of concern. Patient advisors
will contact the patient as soon as they receive a concern. Through the complaints process
patients will be given timeframes and clear guidance to whom and how their complaint will
be handled.
After resolution, Patient Advisors contact patients to ask for feedback and whether the
complaint answered all points. Internally actions will be taken from each complaint from
individual feedback to staff training. The actions and learning will also be included in the
complaint reply.
Monthly, complaint reports are circulated internally and shared with commissioners. Trends
and themes are also discussed on a monthly basis in each regional area with focus on
service delivery. All contacts from patients are recorded and managed accordingly and are
broken down within the reporting tools.
Page 16 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
The number of patient contacts relating to complaints, concerns, comments and
compliments in 2013/14 are as follows:
New
Contacts
Reported
Total no of
PTS
Journeys
2013/14
Apr
2013
240
May
2013
187
Jun
2013
190
Jul
2013
214
Aug
2013
225
Sep
2013
129
Oct
2013
144
Nov
2013
159
Dec
2013
198
Jan
2014
266
Feb
2014
210
Mar
2014
182
73617
76281
71213
82872
78113
78118
85434
80745
91336
102499
92888
96551
Patient Surveys
This year robust procedures were introduced to capture patient experience information from
patients and record and analyse the data on a regular basis. This has enabled the
organisation to understand how it is performing from a patient perspective, report this to
commissioners and to shape services with the involvement of patients and their relatives. In
some contract areas, it also incorporated the newly introduced NHS friends and family test,
which is mandated across many NHS trusts and is current best practice within the NHS.
The following methods were used to capture feedback;
•
•
Postcards with freepost capability – given out by drivers and within hospital
discharge lounges (these are barcoded to identify which area they have been
distributed in)
Online survey on the website.
The patient feedback survey programme is scheduled to take place on varied frequency
depending on the individual requirements of each contract area and can vary from annual,
bi-annual and quarterly.
In line with the Department of Health patient experience
framework, the satisfaction levels of patients were measured across the areas of:



Comfort
Care and safety
Patient communication.
The surveys were undertaken by an independent organisation specialising in patient surveys
on behalf of the NHS.
Satisfaction levels are high amongst patients, based on an 11 percent response rate overall.
Results are summarised below:
Page 17 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
Recurring themes for satisfaction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Compassionate and caring staff.
Patients felt secure and a clean and secure environment.
Careful driving by staff.
Staff attitude was pleasant and helpful.
Taking to right place and staying with us, accompanying from door of home to
ambulance.
Made to feel important.
Cheerful, helpful, pleasant, attentive, good communication, reactive and
responsive.
Constantly asking/checking on me.
Showed patience.
Friendly/polite/helpful.
Listened, nothing was irrelevant.
Felt at ease.
Page 18 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
Recurring themes for dissatisfaction
•
•
•
Bumpiness and noise in vehicles.
Use of taxis.
No escort allowed.
Page 19 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
3.2 Statements from Clinical Commissioning Groups,
Healthwatch and Overview & Scrutiny Committees
We acknowledge that in the production of our first Quality Account we had not provided the
required time for feedback and we would like to thank those stakeholders who have
responded so far. Where feedback has been received it is included below and where
possible this year’s account has been amended. This has not been possible in all cases,
however we will ensure that our consultation with relevant stakeholders is undertaken much
earlier next year and any comments received are used to benefit next year’s account. Any
comments that are received this year after the date of submission will also be considered for
next year’s account.
What NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said:
NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) manages the Greater Manchester
(GM) contract on behalf of the commissioning body (NHS Tameside and Glossop CCG), and
the other eleven CCGs in GM, and as such welcomes the opportunity to review the 2013-14
Arriva Transport Solutions Ltd (ATSL) Quality Account. This statement is made by NHS
Blackpool CCG on behalf of the twelve GM CCGs. Unfortunately we have not had sufficient
time for all CCGs to review and provide comments as we have been given 3 days as
opposed to 30 to provide this commentary.
While ATSL is only required to produce one Quality Account covering all contracts, in future
it would be beneficial for contract specific data to be included. This would make the Quality
Accounts more meaningful to service users at a local level (for example the issues raised
through patient surveys, complaints and incidents.)
Commissioners have the following comments in relation to the priorities identified for 201415:


Priority One – Patient Safety - Commissioners would like to see an increase in
patient safety incidents reported, as this demonstrates a safety aware culture.
Priority Three and Four –Patient Experience – Plans for dissemination of the learning
from patient experience has not been specified by ATSL. In future Commissioners
would like to see more detail about how they will be sharing learning from patient
feedback. Commissioners will be reviewing and monitoring this in 2014-15.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection of the GM area during the
year and we are pleased with the assurance that ATSL was compliant with the five care
standards assessed as part of the inspection.
Performance concerns have been raised with ATSL in relation to achievement of some
quality standards within the contract. An improvement plan has been produced and
Page 20 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
monitored, which has resulted in significant improvement. Commissioners acknowledge the
work undertaken by ATSL in achieving these improvements in performance, as well as their
commitment to continuously improve.
Commissioners will closely monitor the 2014-15
plans to ensure all standards are achieved and maintained.
For incident reporting, it would be helpful for future Quality Accounts if the incidents are split
for patient and staff incidents, common themes, what percentage resulted in harm, including
severe harm or death, and include lessons learned and actions taken. Similarly for
complaints it would be useful to include common themes of complaints, lessons learned and
what actions ATSL have implemented.
In January 2014 Arriva worked with nine Healthwatch organisations in GM, on a survey of
non-emergency Patient Transport Service users within the region. The results were
published in June 2014 and Commissioners will monitor delivery of the actions ATSL have
committed to implement to address the issues identified within the survey.
During 2013/14 ATSL has worked with individual CCGs and Acute Trusts. They have also
worked with the GM CCGs collectively, and Commissioners would like to see these
relationships continue to develop during 2014/15, in order to facilitate further service
improvements.
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Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
What Healthwatch organisations said in Wiltshire, Swindon, and Bath and North East
Somerset (BANES):
This statement is submitted on behalf of the local Healthwatch organisations in Wiltshire,
Swindon, and Bath and North East Somerset (BANES). The contract for non-emergency
transport in these areas was won by ATSL and the service started in December 2013. Local
Healthwatch were established on 1 April 2013 to promote the voice of patients and the wider
public in respect to health and social care services. As such local Healthwatch welcome the
opportunity to comment on the Quality Account for ATSL but were only given a few days in
which to do so. It is important that local Healthwatch is provided with the minimum period of
time to comment on future Quality Accounts in order to make the most of the opportunity to
reflect the views and experiences of service users.
The Quality Account fails to reflect the difficulties the service faced in Wiltshire, Swindon,
and BANES particularly in the first few months of the service. Local Healthwatch
organisations received high numbers of queries, comments and concerns about a number of
issues including:
-
Difficulties with using the telephone interface
-
Inappropriate vehicles being assigned for transfer of some patients
-
Failure to collect patients (either from home or from hospital)
-
Long waiting times for transport to arrive (sometimes resulting in delayed discharge
which result in operational issues for the hospital)
-
Where the service is outsourced to local taxi firms, some experiences of poor
customer service
-
Operational impact on reception staff in hospital departments which have high levels
of day patients having to spend disproportionate amount of time trying to arrange
transport to the detriment of patient interface and other duties
These comments and concerns have been shared with ATSL and a number of meetings
have taken place with local Healthwatch which have provided ATSL with the opportunity to
explain its improvement plans. Local Healthwatch recognise that the original contract
specification included inaccurate information about volume and type of patient journeys
because there was no central booking facility or oversight at a Clinical Commissioning Group
level.
Page 22 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
Healthwatch notes that there was a substantial but unexplained increase in the number of
near misses reported (page 15) in February and March 2014. The Quality Account does not
differentiate between complaints and compliments on page 17. It would have helpful if it
had. Since the monthly passenger figures increased substantially during 2013/4 but
complaints and compliments did not, we can only assume that people dissatisfied with the
new service from 1 December did not make formal complaints.
Healthwatch believes that ATSL has worked hard to implement the improvement plan and
the quality of the service has improved though we continue to hear from patients whose
journeys have been unsatisfactory. Local Healthwatch will be monitoring the position
carefully throughout 2014/15 by continuing to listen to local people who use the service and
sharing this important information with ATSL so that it can continue to improve the service.
Page 23 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc
3.3 How to provide feedback on the account
We would really value your feedback on this Quality Account. If you have any comments or
require any more information please contact Director of Governance & Quality, Paul Willetts
on willettsp.ambuline@arriva.co.uk or 0191 520 4226.
Page 24 of 24
Arriva Transport Solutions Limited
Registered in England 00878006
Registered office: Admiral Way
Doxford International Business Park
Sunderland SR3 3XP
A subsidiary of Arriva plc