Selkent Ambulance Service

Updated 30 May 2023

Selkent Ambulance Service is an independent ambulance service that provides urgent and emergency support and patient transport. The service is based in Chatham, Kent. From August 2022 to December 2022 there had been 50 patient transfers and one conveyance from an event to an NHS hospital. The level of activity was relatively small and arranged on an ad hoc basis.

The service registered with the Care Quality Commission in March 2020.

The service has a registered manager who is responsible for the carrying out of the regulated activities below:

• Transport, triage and medical advice remotely
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The main service provided was Patient Transport Services. Where our findings on Patient Transport Services also apply to other services, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer to the Patient Transport Services service.

Updated 30 May 2023

We rated it as requires improvement because:

• Training requirements were unclear and inconsistent. The majority of staff had not completed safeguarding children training in accordance with national guidance.
• The service relied on paper records for all activities and papers were misfiled. This made it difficult to access and monitor information.
• There was a lack of key policies and there was not a clear process for how policies were approved and reviewed. This was not consistent with statements within the policies which stated they would be reviewed annually.
• Patient records were not always stored securely. We found patient identifiable documents had been left in the vehicles.
• There were limited systems in place to monitor the effectiveness and quality of the service.
• Out of date consumables were found on vehicles and some equipment such as ambulance trolleys had not been properly maintained.

However:

• Staff had training in key skills and had processes in place to report incidents and safeguarding concerns. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them when arranging patient transport.
• Feedback demonstrated staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs. They provided support to patients, families and carers and delivered a prompt service.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.

Updated 30 May 2023

We rated it as requires improvement. The main service provided was Patient Transport Services.

See the overall summary for details.

Updated 30 May 2023

We rated it as requires improvement. See the overall summary for details.

At the time of inspection, the service was registered to provide emergency and urgent care. However, the service had only completed one emergency and urgent care transfer in the form of a conveyance from an event to an NHS hospital.

Emergency and urgent care is a small proportion of service provided. The main service was Patient Transport Service. Where arrangements were the same, we have reported findings in the Patient Transport Service section.