Minutes:
*O&S 81
Following a formal Committee request at its meeting held on 7 November 2017 (Minute *O&S 59 refers), the Chairman introduced and welcomed Mr Steve Boucher (Head of Operations, West Division) and Mr Kevin McSherry (Operations Manager, West Devon) to outline how the ambulance service was responding to public sector challenges.
In their presentation, the following points were raised:-
(a) The representatives informed that new performance measures had been put in place by the Department of Health (DoH) that had come into effect in November 2017 and had included the target for the Service to get to those incidents deemed as being ‘most serious’ within an average of 7 minutes. To date, the Devon average for this category had been 9 minutes and 19 seconds, with the West Devon average being 8 minutes and 16 seconds. The representatives also made the point that the Service had a significant funding gap that resulted in the national DoH target being almost impossible to achieve;
(b) Whilst recognising that the Service had been allocated some additional funding, it was noted that this was not reflective of the increased demand on the Service and the organisation was therefore having to look at achieving further efficiencies. As an indication of the costs of Service provision, it was noted that the cost of running a double crewed ambulance on a ‘24 hours a day, 7 days a week’ basis amounted to £250,000 per year;
(c) With regard to Community First Responders, the representatives advised that:
- Tavistock currently had 3, with 2 more in training;
- 1 in Horrabridge; and
- 1 in Yelverton.
In reply to a question, the representatives confirmed that they would ascertain whether or not Bere Ferrers had a First Responder outside of this meeting. Both Members and the representatives recognised the great work undertaken by this group of volunteers. The Committee also felt there to be scope to encourage more volunteers to come forward by increasing publicity and awareness on the Council website;
(d) Members were informed that the intention of the Service was to manage patients as close to their home as was practically possible. To support this intention, it was noted that only 45% of service callers were taken in an ambulance to ‘Accident and Emergency’ Departments, with 50% of incidents reported being managed at home;
(e) The representatives made reference to the close working relationships between the Service and both the Devon and Cornwall Air Ambulances. It was also noted that the two Devon Air Ambulances were staffed by paramedics from the Ambulance Service;
(f) When questioned, the representatives highlighted the close linkages between the Service and Higher Education establishments. Members were informed that both the University of Plymouth and the University of the West of England offered three-year Paramedic Degree Courses. Furthermore, these courses included ‘on the road’ experience and the Service had recruited 25 graduates via this means.
In addition, the representatives highlighted that North Devon Academy was about to open and that organisation was to offer an A-Level qualification that was focused around the emergency services;
(g) Since it was possible for some ambulance crews to be sent to an incident from outside of the geographical area, the representatives acknowledged that these crews were not likely to have extensive local knowledge. As a result, these crews would be reliant upon sat-nav technology and the representatives could not give an assurance that they would be taking the fastest route to every reported incident;
In conclusion, the Chairman thanked the representatives for their attendance and informative presentation. In reply, the representatives thanked the Committee for their invite and advised that they were happy to attend a future meeting to provide a further update to Members.