ERS Transition Ltd, trading as ERS Medical provides a range of patient transport services (PTS) to the NHS within the North-East Region. The registered location is in Bowburn, Durham which was established on 1 September 2014 when SRCL Ltd, trading as ERS Medical, acquired what was Medical Services North East (MSNE).

ERS Medical was recently sold by SRCL and a new provider had been registered with CQC as ERS Transition Ltd since October 2017.

ERS Medical North East is registered for emergency and urgent care and a patient transport service (PTS). As the provider had not undertaken any regulated activity in the last 12 months in respect of emergency and urgent care the focus of this inspection was in relation to PTS.

ERS provides support to the North East Ambulance Service as required but predominately support specific Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) within the north eastern geographical boundaries. The primary service is transporting non-emergency patients. ERS also provides PTS for GPs in the North Yorkshire and East Riding area of Yorkshire.

ERS can transport patients detained under the Mental Health Act 2007 in a formal and informal context.

The provider has an additional operating base in Blyth, Northumberland that provides similar services to the Bowburn site. This is not a registered location.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 21 and 22 May 2018.

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.

Services we do not rate

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:

• All the PTS staff compliance in mandatory training and safeguarding training.

• The provider had a robust incident reporting procedure which all staff understood and alerted managers in real time if an incident had occurred, which allowed managers to make an early assessment.

• The provider’s key performance indicators were consistently met.

• Staff received a comprehensive induction at the start of their employment.

• There was evidence that all PTS staff were up to date with the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), including consent training.

• There was evidence from 101 staff files including, two staff that worked in accounts and admin, which showed all staff had DBS checks within the past three years and 99 PTS staff had their driving licenses checked within 12 months of this inspection.

• There was evidence of high levels of satisfaction from a patient/carer/relative survey.

• There was regular staff engagement through staff meetings.

• The provider had invested in six computer based business management systems to support various parts of their business. These provided real time reporting of information which allowed senior managers to track business performance, staff accountability and supported decision making.

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

• There were no visual communication aids in any of the PTS ambulances.

• The provider did not have an effective system in place to identify out of date consumable items. Two automated external defibrillator (AED) pads and the electrocardiogram (ECG) dots on one ambulance were found to be out of date.

• There were no complaints forms carried on PTS ambulances.

Following this inspection, we told the provider they should make three improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Name of signatory

Ellen Armistead

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (area of responsibility), on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals