Event Medical Services is operated by Event Medical Services Ltd. The service provides transport of patients from events.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 29 May 2018 and a follow-up phone interview on 5 June 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.

The main service provided by this service was urgent and emergency care.

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 issues that the service provider needs to improve:

• We were concerned with the prescription, storage and monitoring of medicines.

• We had concerns about the storage and quality patient report forms. There was no system of routine audit in place to ensure documentation was appropriate.

• The ambulance station was cluttered with no clear system to ensure equipment which was not in use was cleaned and separated.There was no clearly defined sluice area with running water.

• Levels of mandatory training by staff employed directly by the service were poor.

• Complaint processes were not easily accessible and no information about complaints was displayed on emergency vehicles.

• We were concerned with the completeness of the deep cleaning of ambulances by an external company.

• The storage of oxygen, chemicals and flammable liquids was not in line with best practice guidance.

• There was no formal risk register in place, however, the management team could all describe the risks to the service

However, we also found the following areas of good practice:

• New staff members underwent a comprehensive induction programme. There were additional checks in place for staff who had substantive employment within NHS services. Training was provided for staff dealing with patients with additional needs.

• There was an additional assessment to measure mental capacity, this was used alongside the patient report form.

• The provider used an additional patient record to assess for mental capacity.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements. We also issued the provider with three requirement notices that affected Event Medical Services Limited. Details are at the end of the report.

Ellen Armistead

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