Immediate Care Medical Services Ltd

Updated 13 February 2023

Immediate Care Medical Services is operated by Immediate Care Medical Services Limited. The service provides patient transport services and emergency event transfers. Services are offered nationally but predominantly within the West Midlands and East of England areas. The registered manager is the owner.

The service has contracts with both NHS and independent ambulance service providers to transport patients between homes, clinics and hospitals as well as inter-facility journeys. The service also has several event contracts which they provide medical cover which includes emergency care and transport to hospital.

There are 12 substantive staff employed by the service which includes the registered manager who was the clinical director, an operations director, a logistics manager, a compliance manager, a training manager, human resources manager and administrative and make ready team staff. The service employees 57 subcontracted staff including paramedics, nurses, doctors, ambulance technicians and ambulance support assistants.

The regulated activities delivered by the provider are:

• Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely.
• Treatment of disorder, disease and injury.

The service was previously inspected on 19 October 2022 and was rated requires improvement overall. Following our previous inspection, we served a warning notice to the service requiring them to make immediate improvements to their systems and processes to ensure the safe management of medicines including controlled drugs. During this inspection we found the service had taken immediate action and improvements had been made.

Updated 13 February 2023

We carried out an inspection of Immediate Care Medical Services Ltd using our focused methodology under the core service framework of Emergency and Urgent Care. We undertook an unannounced site visit on 18 January 2023. We carried out this inspection to check the quality of the service in response to a warning notice we issued in October 2022. Following our previous inspection on 19 October 2022 we served a warning notice to the service requiring them to make immediate improvements to their systems and processes for storing medicines including controlled drugs.

During this inspection we inspected the medical care core service using our focused inspection methodology. We did not cover all key lines of enquiry; however, we have re-rated this service as the issues that led to the serving of the warning notice had mainly been addressed, therefore the rating limiters no longer applied.

Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as good because:

• The service used systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines.
• Leaders operated effective medicines management governance processes. Staff at all levels were clear about their roles and accountabilities and had regular opportunities to meet, discuss and learn from the performance of the service.
• Leaders and teams used systems to manage medicines management performance effectively. They identified and escalated relevant risks and issues and identified actions to reduce their impact. They had plans to cope with unexpected events.

Updated 12 December 2022

Our rating of this location is good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. Managers made sure staff were competent. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients and kept good care records.
• Staff provided good care and treatment and managers monitored the effectiveness of the service. Managers made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients and supported them to make decisions about their care.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people and took account of patients’ individual needs. People could access the service when they needed it.
• Leaders generally had the skills and abilities to run the service. They understood and managed the priorities and issues the service faced. Managers supported staff to develop their skills. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• The environment did not always meet national guidance. The service did not always share learning from incidents with staff. Managers did not have clear process to apply duty of candour where undertaking third party work. Lessons learned from complaints were not always shared with staff.
• Governance structures were not always effective. Processes were not in place to seek staff views and experiences to improve the service. Managers did not actively seek feedback from people who used the service.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective and responsive. However, well led requires improvement. We did not rate caring on this inspection.

Updated 13 February 2023

We carried out an inspection of Immediate Care Medical Services Ltd using our focused methodology under the core service framework of Emergency and Urgent Care. We undertook an unannounced site visit on 18 January 2023. We carried out this inspection to check the quality of the service in response to a warning notice we issued in October 2022. Following our previous inspection on 19 October 2022 we served a warning notice to the service requiring them to make immediate improvements to their systems and processes for storing medicines including controlled drugs.

During this inspection we inspected the medical care core service using our focused inspection methodology. We did not cover all key lines of enquiry; however, we have re-rated this service as the issues that led to the serving of the warning notice had mainly been addressed, therefore the rating limiters no longer applied.

Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as good because:

• The service used systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines.
• Leaders operated effective medicines management governance processes. Staff at all levels were clear about their roles and accountabilities and had regular opportunities to meet, discuss and learn from the performance of the service.
• Leaders and teams used systems to manage medicines management performance effectively. They identified and escalated relevant risks and issues and identified actions to reduce their impact. They had plans to cope with unexpected events.