To receive a report on the Trust’s Annual Plan for 2013/14.

The committee received a presentation on the work of the West Midlands Ambulance Trust from Mr Dug Holloway, Area Manager. During his presentation, Mr Holloway raised the following issues:

That the new 111 telephone number that had been introduced for non-emergency calls had gone live on the 19 March.  There was concern about the amount of additional work it would generate for the Trust as some areas had seen an increase of up to 30% in workloads.  To date, there had been little additional impact.  The Trust had been running up to 30 different scenarios a day in order to ensure that the Service would be able to cope with calls. The staff who were operating the system had largely been working for NHS Direst, and had local knowledge of the County.

The Committee expressed concern that there was a potential for confusion amongst the public as to which phone numbers should be used in the future to deal with specific incidents.  Mr Holloway concurred, and said that this matter, as well as the potential for escalation in calls to the Service, had been raised at the highest level by the Chief Executive of the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

·      That the Trust had gained Foundation status on the 28 January 2013.  There would be no change to the service that patients received, but it would mean that the Trust would be able to target funds in a way that would both more effectively manage and maintain current services with which the public are familiar, whilst developing future improvements.

·      Vehicles would be replaced on a rolling five year plan.  Sixty new ambulances would be brought into service over this period.  Thirty five Rapid Response Vehicles and major response vehicles were being updated, as well as new four wheel drive vehicles that were being especially customised for the Service and would allow for faster response rates in rural areas.

·      That there were 250 paramedics across the West Midlands area and the Service was looking to recruit additional staff.

·      That the transformation programme had ensured that, through the Make Ready service, there was increased cover throughout the County.

In reply to a question, Mr Holloway said that the main concern for the Service was the rising level of demand.  There had been a total of 19,983 callouts in 2011-12, and this had risen to 22,212 to date in the present year.  This represented an 11% increase to date.   There was also a concern about the financial situation at the County Hospital.

The movement of patients from the County Hospital was also an issue, and work was in hand to encourage the Trust to discharge and transfer patients at times when there were the greatest number of ambulances available.

·         That work with local GPs to encourage the treatment of patients win their own homes would be beneficial.

·         That the Ambulance Hub system was performing well, and the Service had moved from a target of reaching 74% of calls within 8 minutes, to 79% over the previous six months.  Turnaround at the hospital had been reduced to an average of 27.5 minutes per vehicle.   Clinical performance stood at 87% against a national average of 75%. No formal complaints had been made against staff in 2012-2013.

·         That paramedics were being encouraged to treat patients in their own home wherever appropriate, rather than bringing them into the hospital. This was as part of a drive across the County to prevent patients from going into hospital unless they needed to

In reply to the Chairman’s question regarding the number of hospitals in the region that had been at Level 4 over the previous two weeks, Mr Holloway said that this was of concern both to the Ambulance Service and the NHS.  The hospitals had declared major incidents for their own internal organisations, and this had meant that more patients had stayed in hospital for longer periods, and that there had been a number of vehicles waiting outside hospitals whilst space was being made available.  Whilst the Wye Valley Trust was being diligent in ensuring that all patients were safe, patients had been taken off ambulances and placed in corridors until beds were available.  There had been no impact on the Ambulance Services performance, and additional crews would be brought in to accommodate delays.

The Chairman thanked Mr Holloway for his presentation.