Pulseline Ambulance Services Ltd

Updated 15 December 2023

Pulseline Ambulance Services Ltd provides private urgent and emergency care (UEC) transport and patient transport services (PTS). These services are arranged on demand with individual patients, such as for transport between a hospital and a residential care home. Urgent and emergency care services are provided under private contracts with event organisers to transport injured or unwell patients to hospital emergency departments.

Our regulation of UEC includes the transportation of patients, and care received during the journey, from an event to an emergency department. We do not regulate care or treatment provided by staff whilst on site where the patients are not transported elsewhere.

The service has a fleet of 4 ambulances equipped to provide both PTS and UEC and specially modified for the environments in which staff work.

The service registered with us in 2014 to provide the following regulated activities:

• Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely
• Treatment of disease, disorder, or injury

There is a registered manager in post.

Regulated activities are a small proportion of the provider’s work. In the 12 months leading to our inspection, the service provided 23 PTS journeys and 15 UEC transfers.

We last inspected the service in May 2018. At that time, we did not have a duty to rate patient transport services and instead published a narrative report. We issued the provider with a Requirement Notice for Regulation 17 under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. This reflected a need for improvement in governance and risk management. At this inspection we found the service had implemented significant improvements.

Since our last inspection, the provider introduced UEC services. This is provided under our regulation when transferring patients from a public event, such as a sports ground or concert, to a hospital emergency department. Where our findings on PTS – for example, management arrangements – also apply to UEC, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer.

Updated 15 December 2023

We have not previously rated this service. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service managed infection risks well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them, and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided good care and treatment and gave patients pain relief when they needed it. The service met agreed response times. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity and provided emotional support to patients, families, and carers.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback.
• Leaders ran services well and were respected by staff. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and contracting organisations to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• While policies were up to date, the evidence base or tools used for each did not always reflect the most up to date evidence available.
• Continuing professional development opportunities were inconsistent and lacked structure.

Updated 15 December 2023

We have not previously rated this service.

We rated it as good because:

• The provider maintained high standards of governance, staff training, and risk management despite the occasional nature of transfers.
• Vehicles and staff provided highly adaptable care for patients with high levels of vulnerability.
• There had been significant, sustained improvements in the service since our last inspection.

Where arrangements were the same for both urgent and emergency care (UEC) and patient transport services, we have reported findings in the UEC section.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, and responsive, with evidence of outstanding practice in well led. Please see the main summary.

Updated 15 December 2023

We have not previously inspected this service. We rated it as good because:

• Staff held training to an advanced level comparable with major emergency service organisations. This included in life support, safeguarding, and clinical practice.
• Safeguarding practices were highly developed, and the service worked collaboratively to adapt processes to specific events and localities.
• Audits demonstrated consistently good practice across all parts of the service, including a highly developed infection prevention and control system and clinical practices that resulted in good patient outcomes.

However:

• Policies did not always keep up to date with developments in technology.
• Continuing professional development opportunities were inconsistent.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, and responsive, with evidence of outstanding practice in well led. Please see the main summary.