Manchester Medical Services is operated by Manchester Medical Services Ltd. Manchester Medical Services Ltd is registered to provide emergency and urgent care and patient transport services. Manchester Medical Services offers ambulance transport on an ‘as required’ basis and has contracts to provide pre-planned transport. Ambulance services are provided to NHS Trusts, NHS ambulance services, private hospitals and repatriation organisations. The service had not provided any emergency service since September 2017 so we inspected patient transport services only. The service had no contracts for urgent care and had no plans to deliver this going forwards.

The patient transfers include patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 going to or from mental health units.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 24 October 2017.

Report of inspection to 24 October 2017 2016 – Manchester Medical Services Ltd. Manchester Medical Services

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led?

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The main service provided by this service was patient transport.

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We regulate independent ambulance services but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.

We found the following areas of good practice:

· The provider had processes and practices to assess, monitor and improve quality and safety. Staff were knowledgeable about how to report an incident and had access to incident reporting forms including whilst on ambulances. We saw evidence and examples of incident reporting and learning from incidents.

· The service had enough skilled staff to safely carry out the booked patient transfers and ensured a minimum of two staff were allocated to each patient transfer depending on risk and need. The staffing levels and skill mix of the staff met the patients’ needs.

· All vehicles and the ambulance station were visibly clean and systems were in place to ensure vehicles were well maintained.

· All equipment necessary to meet the various needs of patients was available.

· There were effective recruitment and systems to support staff.

· The service employed competent staff and ensured all staff were trained appropriately to undertake their roles. Staff had a clear understanding of the Mental Health Act (1983) and were aware of their roles and responsibilities.

· Staff demonstrated exceptional pride in their role and we heard examples where they had shown care and compassion when treating patients. The provider sought to gain feedback from patients using a patient experience form.

· The service took account of the particular needs of patients and ensured flexibility, choice and continuity of care.

· The leaders were clear about the vision and strategy of the organisation to make sure it provided high quality care. We saw, that the leadership of the service was open, approachable and inclusive and staff confirmed this. The management had plans to continually develop the service.

However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

· The provider was not fully aware of their legal requirement to notify specific information to CQC. During our inspection the registered manager acted on this.

· The provider should consider having a checklist in line with FREC (First response emergency care) to aid in checking all personal kits with equipment for medical emergencies were complete.

· The provider should consider introducing team meetings as they are an invaluable 

opportunity to share information and practice directly with staff.

· The provider should consider making arrangements for ongoing checks for driver 

competence, such as spot checks or ‘ride outs’ by a driving assessor.

Ellen Armistead

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (North), on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals