Whitehorse Leadership Training Ltd is an independent medical transport provider based in Weymouth, Dorset. They provide a service for a broad range of events that require the support of specialist medical personnel and equipment, and patient transportation. The part of this service inspected supplied patient transport.

The service has five fully equipped frontline vehicles, which are crewed by combinations of trained paramedics, ambulance technicians and emergency care assistants.

We carried out a scheduled comprehensive announced inspection on 27 October 2016.

We do not currently have a legal duty to rate independent ambulance services but we highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• The service had a system in place for reporting and recording incidents, learning from which were effectively shared with staff.
• Vehicles and equipment were well maintained and fit for purpose.
• Managers took account of current national standards and legislation and staff had the skills to carry out their roles effectively.
• During the inspection, clinical staff were professional in their approach to patients, and demonstrated a caring and compassionate manner.
• The service planned their provision based on good risk assessment practises
• Staff were positive about the support from the managing director and enjoyed working for the service.
• The service received a good level of positive feedback from the clients they were working with.

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

• The organisation should ensure that all vehicles have appropriate levels of safety straps.

Information on our key findings and action we have asked the provider to take are listed at the end of the report.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals