Agenda item

11.00

Duncan Burke, Director of Communications & Public Engagement, South Central Ambulance Service, John Nicholls, Operations Director, Aubrey Bell,  Area Manager (Oxfordshire) and Debbie Marrs, Assistant Director for Patient Services will present a follow up report (JHO10a) on performance of the Ambulance Service in Oxfordshire in response to the discussion and request for more information at the last meeting and present the quality account and priorities (JHO10b) for the Trust for the new year.

Debbie Mars, John Nicholls and Aubrey Bell from South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) presented the report on performance of the service in Oxfordshire.

In the presentation the following points were made

• SCAS experiences 5/6% increased demand on their services year on year but demand is now back to its seasonal average having seen particularly high demand between January and March this year.
• South Oxfordshire performance has improved which reflects the steps that have been put in place. There is better linkage with resources at the southern border around Henley and Reading so it is possible to pull up a response vehicle from south of Oxfordshire.
• Targets are set nationally
• Ambulance services are provided more dynamically now than in the past where there was a reliance on fixed ambulance stations. The location of vehicles in the best locations to respond to calls is key. Crews now start and end their shifts at larger resource centres.
• SCAS are increasing their ‘See and Treat’ responses which reduce the pressure on Accident and Emergency departments and improves the service’s availability to respond calls as the need to transport to hospital is reduced.
• The need to do more to reduce overall demand on the emergency care system was identified. The introduction of the 111 non-emergency number was to help in this respect.
• A recent campaign to warn people to use 999 appropriately had resulted in an increase in demand.
• SCAS has been working closely with the new Chief Matron and Chief Operating Officer at the Oxford University Hospitals Trust to address the issues that arose when demand remained so high at the start of the year which included at the back door as well as the front.

Following the presentation the item was opened up to questions and discussion with members. The following points were made,

·        SCAS is involved in a pilot for 111 with Oxfordshire Health to handle calls. It was noted that there will be an item on 111 at the next HOSC meeting.

·        SCAS will have access to all 111 services with the intention of reducing the need to go to hospital.

·        The SCAS board will be considering how to manage volunteer first responders who currently do not get travel costs. The committee felt that this would be a useful incentive to encourage people in communities to volunteer for this service.

·        The range and location of vehicles is improving coverage of the service and location in places close to likely events is helping to reduce response times.

·        SCAS are reviewing rotas based on past demand patterns to ensure that they are best placed to meet demand but this must be balanced with HR regulations on reasonableness.

·        There was suggestion from the committee that an effective ‘see and treat’ approach may lead to increased demand on 999 services as the public see this to be effective rather than using more appropriate services. In response SCAS said it hoped that the 111 service would mitigate this but that there is a risk.

·        The committee was concerned that it could not see actual response times performance as this was concentrated on the 8 minute and 19 minute targets. Whilst performance against the 8 minute target appears poor in parts of Oxfordshire members were keen to see how much the target was missed by. SCAS AGREED to provide further detail of response times in graphical format.

·        The committee were keen to encourage SCAS to do more than the national campaigns to inform the public about the appropriate use of 999. A recent You Tube video for young people and fleet advertising were cited.

·        Cllr Couchman asked how big a problem nuisance calls were. John Nicholls responded that whilst all nuisance calls are unwanted this was not a big problem in Oxfordshire especially compared to the metropolitan areas. SCAS work with the Police and telephone companies to identify and prosecute offenders.

·        SCAS noted that in the early days of the new GPs out of hours contract an increase in demand for 999 services was seen but that this has settled down. There are good relationships with the local out of hours service and activity is shared between each other.