CQC finds North East ambulance service lacked critical medicines

An inspection report has found that ambulance crews in the North East frequently responded to emergencies without having access to life-saving drugs.

The study of North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust concluded that patients were put at potential risk by the poor management of medicines.

The Care Quality Commission found a deterioration of services and rated the trust’s urgent care as “inadequate”.

Inspectors focussed on the trust’s emergency operations centre, their emergency care, the NHS 111 service and its leadership.

Sarah Dransfield, CQC’s deputy director of operations in the north, said “When we inspected NEAS NHS Foundation Trust, we found a deterioration in the services being provided, especially in urgent and emergency care where this had potential for people to be placed at risk of harm.

“It was particularly concerning that staff didn’t always have access to critical medicines needed to treat patients and some crews didn’t have time to complete vehicle medicine checks, resulting in treatment delays.”

In a survey held as part of the inspection, staff members said they felt under pressure and did not feel valued or supported.  Some said their felt uneasy about raising concerns for fear of blame or reprisal.

Ms Dransfield went on to say “We were concerned the trust was not always thoroughly investigating incidents and may have made decisions based on limited information, reducing the ability to identify learning and prevent reoccurrence.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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