04.01.17
Ambulance service served performance notice to meet national targets
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) has been served with a contract performance notice after failing to meet targets for answering calls.
According to a report put before the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) Joint Health Scrutiny Committee, NWAS answered 70.34% of Red 1 calls and 64.07% of Red 2 calls within eight minutes, against a target of 75%.
In total, it answered 89.95% of Category A calls within 19 minutes, compared to a goal of 95%.
However, NWAS is performing above the national average. All NHS services are serially missing performance targets due to increased demand combined with an ongoing squeeze on resources.
The latest statistics show that, as of 18 December, NWAS was the third highest performer against the Red 1 standard and the fourth highest against the Red 2 standard, out of seven ambulance trusts.
Greater Manchester commissioners issued the contract performance notice in mid-November, and are working with the trust’s director of operations to develop a remedial action plan in order to meet national targets.
However, GMCA, which is currently the only combined authority in the country to have responsibility for the region’s healthcare, was told that sustainable improvement on a number of issues would “require system change”.
The report warned that the problems were due to an unexpected increase in demand, which was 7.6% higher in 2016-17 than in 2015-16, compared to the 2.5% expected by commissioners.
Furthermore, in the past three years, the ambulance service has had to deal with a higher rate of acute incidents, with 135,000 more patients being moved into the Red category for the most serious problems.
Ambulances are also facing delays in the handover at hospital, which now takes an average of 36 minutes instead of 30, equating to 9,000 lost ambulance hours a year.
The worst hospitals for handover times in Greater Manchester are Royal Bolton (45 minutes), Stepping Hill (43 minutes) and North Manchester General (37 minutes).
However, the report pointed to a number of reforms introduced by NWAS to try to reduce demand on ambulance services. ‘Hear & Treat’ and ‘See & Treat’, two programmes designed to safely refer patients to alternative services, have been running for the past three years. Clinical Hubs, which will provide out-of-hours care to patients who would normally go to hospital, are due to be introduced between January and April 2017 in Greater Manchester.
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