Mediskills

​ Mediskills is operated by Mediskills Ltd . This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Mediskills provides services to patients taking part in or attending a television studio event and also provides training services. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, the services provided to patients taking part in or attending the television studio event were not inspected.

The service provides a regulated patient transport service in the event that a patient requires transfer to hospital . During the previous year one transfer had taken plac e.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the unannounced visit to the service on 15 July 2019 .

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 Me ntal Capacity Act 2005 .

We rated this service as Good overall.

• The service provided managers with access to staff ’ s mandatory training history in key skills and made sure everyone completed it.

• Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

• The service-controlled infection risk well. Staff used equipment and control measures to protect patients, themselves and others from infection. Whilst the organisation did not own ambulances and leased them, they had processes in place to keep vehicles clean and also kept their premises and equipment visibly clean.

• Staff had systems in place to completed and updated risk assessments for each patient and removed or minimised risks. Staff could identify and quickly acted upon patients at risk of deterioration.

• The service had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. Managers regularly reviewed and adjusted staffing levels and skill mix and gave bank, agency and locum staff a full induction.

• Staff kept detailed records of patients’ care and treatment. Records were clear, up-to-date, stored securely and easily available to all staff providing care.

• The service managed patient safety incidents well. Staff had processes in place to recognised incidents and near misses and could reported them appropriately.

• The service provided care and treatment based on national guidance and evidence-based practice

• All those responsible for delivering care worked together as a team to benefit patients. They supported each other to provide good care and communicated effectively with other agencies.

• The service planned and provided care in a way that met the needs of people and the communities served.

• The service was inclusive and took account of patients’ individual needs and preferences. Staff made reasonable adjustments to help patients access services. They coordinated care with other services and providers.

• Leaders had the integrity, skills and abilities to run the service. They understood and managed the priorities and issues the service faced.

However:

• Governance systems to manage risks and performance needed to be further developed to be more robust.

• The vision and strategy for the service needed to be further developed.

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, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. We also issued the provider with one requirement notice that affected patient transport services. Details are at the end of the report.

Ann Ford

De puty Chief Inspector of Hospitals ( North region ) , on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals