Archived: Secure 24

Updated 28 December 2017

Secure 24 is operated by Definitive PSA Ltd and registered with the CQC in 2013. The service had recently moved to a new base in Felbridge, and was going through the registration process for this. The service is available 24 hours per day, every day of the year.

Although registered as a patient transport service; patients transferred by the service were physically able and this meant that vehicles used by the service were not equipped in the same way that conventional ambulances would be.

The service is an independent ambulance specialising in the secure transfer of mental health patients and those sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983. The service transported both adults and children across the United Kingdom and the types of transfers included from secure mental health units, to prison or courts, transfers from mental health inpatient units and extraction and transportation to and from patients’ homes.

The service has had a registered manager in post since December 2013 and this individual was the Managing Director of the service.

We inspected this service on 10 October 2017 and this was the first compliance inspection of the service following its registration.

Updated 28 December 2017

Secure 24 is an independent ambulance service operated by Definitive PSA Ltd. The service provides a patient transport service specialising in the transfer of mental health patients, including those detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an announced inspection on 10 October 2017.

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 services.

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:

• Vehicles we reviewed were clean, serviceable and well maintained.

• Staff worked effectively with other providers in order to provide the transport service.

• Vehicles used by the service were bespoke and were designed with the patient and staff comfort and safety in mind.

• Patient experience forms circulated by the provider demonstrated consistently positive feedback.

• The service was provided 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In addition, the provider also reacted promptly in response to the following issues raised:

• The incident reporting policy for the service lacked definition of what constituted an incident and we were not assured that all incidents and near misses were being reported. Following our inspection, the provider made amendments to their policy, including definitions and examples of what constituted an incident or near miss.

• Not all of the service’s policies such as the safeguarding or use of force policies, reflected current guidance or best practice. Following our inspection, we saw that the provider had significantly improved their policies on safeguarding and use of force, to include current guidance and best practice.

• The provider did not have a risk register for the service. Following our inspection, we saw that the provider had initiated this.

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

Amanda Stanford

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals.

Updated 28 December 2017

Patient transport services was the only service provided by Secure 24 and this was provided 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The service completed 808 patient journeys between September 2016 and September 2017, which equated to an average of 67 journeys per month. The services transported both adults and children, and there were eleven members of full time staff.