Issue - items at meetings - South East Ambulance update report

(Report attached).

63.1    James Pavey, Regional Operations Manager, South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb); Ben Banfield, Account Manager, SECAmb; Tim Fellows, SECAmb; and Simon Maurice, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust (BSUH), introduced the report.

63.2    The Regional Operations Manager explained that the main purpose of the report was to address concerns for the delays in response times and this was reflected in feedback from patients. It was confirmed to the Committee that a longer term plan was being established.

63.3    In response to the Chair, it was clarified that there are problems across the region with delays and some hospitals do have set procedures that work well; however, these are often not consistent. The main contributing problem was the hospital handover delays which were caused by staffing levels and the flow of patients being transferred from the ambulance to the hospital safely. 

63.4    Mr Fellows confirmed to Councillor Cattell that the building and traffic works at the hospital had had no effect on the ambulance service.

63.5    The Regional Operations Manager explained to the Committee that the lead up to Christmas was less busy than expected but there had been an increase in activity after Christmas resulting in 15% more activity than planned for. The Account Manager added that the profile of demand had been unusual and they believe that this was due to there not being a significant flu in the build up to Christmas.

63.6    In response to the Chair, it was clarified that new cohort staffing arrangements had been introduced, although staffing pressures elsewhere in the emergency department meant that the cohort nurses could not always be deployed in the cohort area.

63.7    It was explained that a larger capacity or additional minor injury units would be unlikely to solve the current problems because demand tends to increase where emergency healthcare capacity is expanded.

63.8    RESOLVED – That the Committee agreed to note the report.