North West Ambulance Service Gets Top Rating In Survey

Patients in the North West have given North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) a vote of confidence and have expressed their great satisfaction with the service they received from NWAS, in the first national Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey of category C emergency calls.

Results of the survey released today show that most of the people who responded to the survey had a positive experience of the way they were looked after by the emergency ambulance services and its dedicated staff.

NWAS scored consistently above the national average in a number of categories including the dignified way patients were treated, given information and the attitude of NWAS staff towards the patients. Staff in the Emergency Control Centres who receive 999 calls achieved particularly good results.

Chief Executive John Burnside is delighted with the outcome of the survey, "It is a great achievement not only for NWAS as an organisation but also for our dedicated and caring staff. It has taken a great deal of effort on their part to deliver such good results and to provide the people of the North West with such an excellent service."

The national results showed how positively patients regard the quality of service offered by the ambulance service.

The survey covered Category C calls to all England's 11 ambulance trusts during the month of July 2008. Almost 4,000 people returned their questionnaires, a response rate of 45%.

Seventy-three per cent of respondents rated the overall care they were given as 'excellent', while a further 25% said it was 'good' or 'very good'.

Most people said their care and treatment were 'definitely' explained in a way they could fully understand, while only 15% felt it was explained 'to some extent'.

Cynthia Bower, Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission, said: "To enable improvements to be made to the quality of care that the NHS provides, it is vital that people are asked about their experiences and what they think of their local health services.
"It is really encouraging to see that patients are so positive about the way ambulance trusts handle non-urgent calls. While more broadly there are aspects of the ambulance service that need to improve, patients have given trusts a real vote of confidence in this area. That is very good news."

Over a full year (2007-08), 7.2 million calls were made to the emergency ambulance services, of which over a quarter (2.1 million) were classed as Category C. This covers a wide range of conditions, from earache or fainting to minor wounds or non-dangerous injuries.

As well as showing that the great majority of people were content with the overall care they received, the Category C survey found they were also positive about specific aspects, particularly waiting times and how staff dealt with them at the scene.

Almost all of the respondents were attended 'at the scene' by the ambulance service.

Although there is no target waiting time for Category C cases, of those who responded to the survey just four per cent felt that help should have arrived 'a lot sooner' and eight per cent said it could have been 'a bit sooner'.

Survey respondents had a high level of trust and confidence in ambulance staff who attended them at the scene (which in 81 per cent of cases was their own home). Ninety-one per cent of respondents 'definitely' had trust and confidence in staff and 90 per cent were 'definitely' reassured by them.

Commenting on the survey Ambulance Network Director Liz Kendall said: "This survey shows patients think the ambulance service is offering fantastic care.

"Our staff do a great deal more than arrive quickly for 'blue light' emergencies. They are also are very good at explaining patients' conditions, offering advice when people need it most and reassuring them. These results are a huge vote of confidence in the ambulance service from patients and the public."