Ambulance UK October 2023

NEWSLINE
“Our hard working staff are
experts in receiving and
responding to urgent and
emergency calls, and this latest
development builds on our years
of experience of hosting the
NHS 111 service in other areas
of London. It will allow us to
bring together our emergency
and urgent care services for an
additional 1.5 million people, and
we are very excited to begin.
“This latest development means
we are now the lead or sole
provider of 111 in four of the five
areas of London (South East,
North East, North West and North
Central) with a small role in South
West London, so we’re extending
our footprint to cover all of
London for this service.
“It really is a great example of LAS
working in partnership with other
providers to create a compelling
North West
Ambulance Service
boosts resilience
ahead of Winter
As the darker evenings set in
and the temperature drops,
North West Ambulance Service
(NWAS) is putting plans in
place to ensure it can continue
to deliver a high-quality
service despite additional
winter demands, including the
recruitment of more than 700
new staff members.
By Christmas, 75 new
paramedics and 32 emergency
medical technicians will have
joined the team, with more due
to be in post by March 2024.
There will be 72 new recruits for
the Patient Transport Service and
250 new call handlers for the 999
and NHS 111 contact centres.
that the high-quality service
expected by our patients is
maintained throughout the
winter period.
“We know that the winter months
will bring with it additional
challenges in terms of more
people needing our help, ongoing
industrial action taking place
across the healthcare system and
an expected increase of seasonal
illnesses, but we are as prepared
as we can be for increased
demands on our service.
North West
Ambulance Service
hospital handover
collaboration
shortlisted for
HSJ Award
26 emergency departments. The
work began in October 2022
and involved getting together to
come up with innovative ideas
and putting them into action.
There was then an evaluation
process to measure the impact
before coming back together to
share findings and next steps in
May 2023.
This initiative has been selected
to make the HSJ Awards shortlist
following a thorough judging
process which whittled down a
record-breaking 1,456 entries
to 223 shortlisted projects,
making it the biggest awards
programme in the award’s
43-year history. The high
volume - and exceptional quality
– of applications once again
mirrors the impressive levels of
innovation and care continually
being developed within the UK’s
healthcare networks.
AMBULANCE UK – OCTOBER
offer for our commissioners and a
good deal for patients.”
Fred Worth, Chairman of London
Central & West UCC Ltd, said:
“As a GP-led not-for-profit
organisation, we are proud to
play such a vital part in ensuring
patients can access urgent
care quickly. Working with our
partners, we have demonstrated,
over many years, the value that
LCW brings to the healthcare
system and are delighted
to continue to deliver this
service to the patients of North
Central London.”
Patients and members of the
public will also benefit from
having direct access to a
multidisciplinary team of LAS
professionals within the Clinical
Assessment Service which will
mean more timely access to
assessments, greater clinical
oversight and an increased use
of alternative pathways to ensure
access to the right service,
first time.
NWAS is also increasing the
number of clinicians working in
its 999 contact centres. They
help get patients the right care
for their needs by providing
healthcare advice over the
phone or making referrals to an
alternative health or care service
in the community.
An additional 32 emergency
ambulances will be out
responding to patients by
February, increasing the number
of emergency ambulances
operating across the region
to 553.
NWAS will continue to work
closely with local hospitals to
help reduce the amount of time
ambulances spend waiting to
handover patients, allowing
vehicles and crews to be free to
respond to the next emergency.
Chief Operating Officer, Salman
Desai said: “As always, we are
here for the public when they
need us most and we have
robust plans in place to ensure
North West Ambulance Service
(NWAS) has been shortlisted
for a Health Service Journal
(HSJ) Award in the Patient
Safety category after working
with North West NHS trusts
in a series of collaborative
events to share ideas and best
practice for improving hospital
handovers.
The improvement collaborative
has helped to reduce the number
of over 60 minute handover
delays in the North West by 47
per cent, only slightly short of the
its target of achieving a 50 per
cent reduction by 31 March 2023.
The joined-up approach led by
NWAS alongside NHS health
and care quality improvement
organisation Aqua and NHS
England North West included
representatives from 20 NHS
trusts across the region covering
Director of Quality, Innovation and
Improvement, Maxine Power said:
“It’s a fantastic achievement to be
shortlisted for such a prestigious
award. I am exceptionally proud
of what has been achieved by
working together to provide our
patients with a better experience
when they use our services.
A huge well done to all the
passionate people involved who
have worked exceptionally hard to
drive forward change and make a
real difference.”
Some of the improvements that
have been put in place as part
of the collaboration include
managing surges of patients
presenting at hospitals over a
short period, using daily data to
support decision making and
going back to basics by looking
at ways to make improvements to
existing processes.
HSJ editor Alastair McLellan,
adds; “It always gives me great
pleasure to congratulate our
finalists at this stage of the
judging process and this year is
28
For further recruitment vacancies visit: www.ambulanceukonline.com