Agenda item

To receive the draft of the EMAS Quality Account 2015/16 and the Commission’s comments are requested.  Judith Douglas, Director of Nursing, EMAS will attend the meeting to outline the performance in 2015/16 and to identify the strategic priorities for 2016/17.

EMAS submitted their draft Quality Account 2015/16 and the Commission’s comments were requested.  Paul Benton, Deputy Director of Quality and Gulnaz Katchi, Community Engagement Officer, EMAS attended the meeting to outline the performance in 2015/16 and to identify the strategic priorities for 2016/17.

Members received a presentation that had been circulated with the agenda.  During the presentation it was noted that significant progress had been made on the priorities for 2015/16 which were identified in last year’s Quality Accounts.  Five priorities had been identified for 2016/17 involving:-

·         Cardiac arrest – return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival outcomes.

·         SEPSIS

·         Identify common themes all maternity related incidents and reduce patient related incidents.

·         Explore alternative pathways and to develop the pathways in the Trust and in each commissioning area.

·         To work collaboratively with local commissioners and relevant stakeholders to implement the agreed priorities within the mental health action group.

It was noted that SEPSIS presented a challenge as its symptoms mimic those of other health issues.

In response to a question from the Chair on the recent suggestion in the press that EMAS may merge with WMAS, the Deputy Director of Quality stated that it was premature to suggest such a merger and the Trust Development Agency currently had no desire for this to happen.  All ambulance trusts were facing financial difficulties and any amalgamation could worsen this as it would be 5-7 years before any financial benefits were likely to be achieved.  It was better for trusts to remain as they were and to be adequately funded for the demands being placed upon them.  If the two trusts merged it would create a trust responsible for providing a service over 7,000 sq miles which was felt to be too large an area.

The trust received approximately 2,000 calls from people dialling 999 and from other healthcare professional requesting urgent transport requests.  There had been 53 ‘serious’ patient safety incidents in the year which required investigation which allowed the trust to analyse what happened and to put in place actions to reduce the occurrence in the future.  Some of these incidents result from ‘human error’ and an example of such an instance was described in the Quality Accounts.

In response to a Member’s question the Deputy Director of Quality stated that the trusts were fined for not achieving performance targets and the trust had been penalised for delays in patient hand-over times at hospitals.  The trust could in turn fine acute hospitals for these delays but preferred instead to work closely with the acute hospitals to improve the situation.

The Chair commented that Members recognised that some of the issues faced by the Trust were not within their control but were dependent on the performance of acute hospital trusts, demands placed upon the by the public, the support and work of GPs etc in the primary care sector, and discharge process from hospitals.

Members welcomed the priorities identified for 2016/17 and recognised that the Trust could not prevent some of the issues happening in the first place, such as SEPSIS. They also felt that the Quality Accounts were more lay friendly to people with no medical knowledge.  Members also welcomed the views expressed that a merger with WMAS was not considered to be appropriate at the present time. 

AGREED:

That the Chair submit the Commission’s comments to the Trust together with any additional comments from Members submitted to the Chair after the meeting.