IAA comments on CQC findings on private ambulance services
Monday, 02 December, 2013
The Board of Directors of the Independent Ambulance Association today (2 December 2013) issued the following statement on the findings of the Care Quality Commission after its first year of inspecting all private ambulance services:
“While welcoming the CQC conclusions that private ambulance services are performing well in treating people effectively and with respect and dignity, we equally share its concerns that one in seven inspections raised problems around safeguarding and safety, having enough staff to respond to people’s needs, or monitoring the quality of service provision.”
Details in the CQC report – The State of Health care and Social Care in England – showed that the percentage of ambulance location inspections that met standards were:
- Safeguarding 87%
- Care and Welfare 98%
- Respect and Dignity 100%
- Staffing Suitability 86%
- Monitoring Quality 86%
The IAA statement continued: “As the CQC points out private ambulance services showed significant variations and while the IAA is warning members against showing any complacency in respect in the way they treat patients, we are working hard to improve across the board operational performance and quality of staff.
“Training is our main priority and this year a specialist working party was formed to develop a framework of training qualifications which members will be encouraged to implement for their staff when it is published early in 2014. Our intention is to share the framework with all interested third parties so that over time an agreed national standard for ambulance training can be created.
“The IAA is committed to supporting the work of the CQC; as stakeholders we sit on several management advisory panels and we hope that our ambulance training framework will become a guide for inspectors and help to continue to raise the bar for all quality ambulance standards”
