St John Ambulance - South Region

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

We rated effective as good. We assessed 2 quality statements. Staff completed robust patient risk assessments so the care and treatment provided met their needs. Assessments included peoples physical and emotional health and personal circumstances that needed to be considered. Staff worked in a strong culture of evidence-based practice. Staff worked together and with others when assessing people’s needs and shared information to maintain continuity of care.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

We did not look at Assessing needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

Staff could describe how they accessed the information they needed to safely risk assess, plan and deliver peoples care and treatment. Staff received the information via their personal handheld device or via calls with the NHS emergency call centres. Staff told us that the work was coordinated at a central location and the information shared provided continuity for the patient. Staff completed handover documentation and made sure they gave the receiving staff the information they needed to provide additional care. However, some staff voiced frustration that at times due to demand there were waits at NHS locations when handing over patients. Some volunteer staff worked substantively in local NHS organisations therefore they had established links and substantive staff knew NHS services well.

The inspection team interviewed staff during the inspection and after the inspection. We found that staff were professional understood their remit and were passionate about delivering safe care and treatment. Staff worked collaboratively when assessing patient needs and understood how to meet the urgent needs of patients during transfers.

The services clinical audit and effectiveness team formed part of a national clinical team and was led by outcomes from national clinical audit. The team comprised of a range of registered health care professionals from different sectors of healthcare. They had expertise in prehospital care, emergency medicine and acute and community care. The service had a process for escalating concerns when equipment or vehicles were not working properly. In the event of a breakdown staff reported the breakdown to the ambulance control room and a well known vehicle breakdown service. If staff required a replacement vehicle or if equipment malfunctioned staff contacted the maintenance team who would try to provide a replacement so that teams were able to continue to work. The providers intranet contained a comprehensive range of up-to-date policies and standard operating procedures which reflected current practice. It had guidance for staff around collaboration with multi-agency teams and for delegation of clinical tasks to ensure the right people delivered evidence-based care and treatment.

We did not look at Supporting people to live healthier lives during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.

Leaders monitored outcomes for the repatriation service monthly operations reports showed important data for staffing, amount of patient journeys, mileage, driving data, incident reports and infection prevention control. The reports included easy to read infographics so that leaders were able to benchmark outcomes.

We did not look at Consent to care and treatment during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Effective.