The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) in May this year and found problems with its urgent and emergency care, safety, and leadership. NHS Improvement has already started supporting the trust to improve quality of care, infection control, and workforce and complaints processes, and will soon appoint an improvement director to provide extra expert advice and support. SECAmb has already put a recovery plan in place and its acting chief executive Geraint Davies said: “While we are pleased that the dedication and care of our staff is highlighted as good in this report, we are sorry that we have not met the standards expected in a number of other areas. “Following initial feedback from the CQC we have already been working on and implementing a number of improvements. I would like to reassure everyone we serve that I, along with my senior team, am committed and focused on ensuring these necessary changes continue. We are determined to implement the changes required to restore confidence in our service.” “I would also like to take this opportunity to point to the enormous amount of excellent work undertaken every day by our staff across our region, often in challenging circumstances, to respond to and treat patients, be it responding to a major road collision or saving the life of a patient in cardiac arrest.” SECAmb has already embarked on a recruitment drive in a number of areas, strengthened its systems for managing medicines, undertaken an infection prevention and control awareness campaign, and has developed a detailed action plan for NHS 111. Anne Eden, executive regional managing director for the south at NHS Improvement, said: “We know that more people than ever are requiring urgent or emergency care this year and that the demand is challenging trusts across England. However, the serious concerns about care at South East Coast Ambulance Service need to be addressed quickly, which is why we are putting the trust in special measures. “We will continue working with the trust to bring about rapid improvement to its urgent and emergency care services, so that when they are ill or in need of immediate care, patients in the South East can be assured that they are getting the quality care they expect.” The CQC’s full report released today (Thursday September 29) rated the trust as ‘inadequate’ overall, but ‘good’ for caring in its major categories, and follows a warning notice issued to SECAmb back in July. Both SECAmb’s chairman and chief executive resigned earlier this year after the fallout from a controversial pilot which delaying dispatching ambulances to some patients in the winter of 2014/15, while the trust also admitted in June that it was ‘failing to reach some patients as quickly as it would like’ due to rising demand, delays at hospitals, and staff shortages. Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals at the CQC, said: “South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has been through a period of significant upheaval following changes in its senior leadership. “It is to the credit of the staff that they have continued to provide a vital service to the people of Kent, Surrey and Sussex – dealing with almost a million emergency calls a year alone. Throughout our inspection we heard how staff were giving their best, treating patients kindly, with dignity, care and compassion. “It was apparent that the leadership had not been supporting staff to do their jobs effectively. Staff told us there was a culture of harassment and bullying. We found in many cases there weren’t enough properly trained staff, or that the proper equipment wasn’t available to them. “At the time of the inspection, we found evidence that senior executives were not always pulling in the same direction. However, improvements are being formulated by an experienced interim chair and the executive has been recently strengthened by new appointments. “While we have significant concerns about the performance of the ambulance service, I want to provide some reassurance. Once care arrives, it is of a good standard – with dedicated and caring call handlers, ambulance crew, paramedics and other frontline staff working hard to ensure this. “Secondly, the trust are taking urgent steps needed and some improvements have already been made - to ensure that everyone who relies on this service receives excellent, timely care.” Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live. Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on. 1) Make our website your homepage 2) Like our Facebook page 3) Follow us on Twitter 4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here. And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out! Always the first with your local news. Be part of it.