Mobile Medical Cover Ltd operates from a base in Unit 6, Adam Smith Street, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire DN31 1SJ. The company provides an emergency and urgent care service at public and private events and a patient transport service. In addition the company provides first aid courses for external customers.

This service was subject to an unannounced highly focussed inspection on 8th February 2017. The focus of this unannounced inspection was in relation to staffing, particularly the checks required to ensure staff were safe to provide care to patients

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? For this inspection we only inspected the safe and well-led domains of the service.

The managing director told us that the company had transferred four patients from events they were covering to hospital and two patients from home to hospital appointments as part of their patient transport services in the last 12 months.

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

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 service had recruitment procedures that ensured staff were only employed after references and employment documents including the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks had been received and reviewed. The DBS helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevents unsuitable people from working with vulnerable people, including children.

• The service had a thorough understanding of available sources of external information to confirm the qualifications and suitability of contracted staff including Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) body in respect of the registration of paramedics.

• The service had conducted secondary on site verification of qualifications and DBS checks. This ensured that staff who were employed at short notice were suitably qualified and safe to work with patients.

• Following events the service provided staff with feedback from the supervisors, patients, event organisers and partner services which included what went well and what could be improved upon. This was a formal process and the feedback was recorded.

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

• The service needs to improve the process around recruitment including verification of supporting employment references and DBS checks by including timescales for the return of documents.

• The service needs to improve the timescales for the return of the internal application and vetting procedures by including timescales for the return of documents.

Ellen Armistead

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (North)