Community Ambulance Service

Updated 3 December 2021

FALCK (London) is one of three locations operated by FALCK UK Ambulance Service Limited. The main office control office is based in Milton Keynes and it serves its London contracts with NHS hospitals from an operational base located in Wembley. Staff either took vehicles home or they were stored at the Wembley base.

FALCK UK Ambulance Service Ltd provide non-emergency patient transport, predominately for patients travelling into and out of hospital for routine treatment such as dialysis, outpatient appointments and discharges following inpatient or emergency care.

They provide transport for patients requiring various ambulatory needs from patients able to walk with assistance, patients travelling requiring a wheelchair or wheelchair assistance, and stretcher patients. No treatment is provided by FALCK employees in these instances.

The service does not operate a blue light service.

This was the first inspection for FALCK (London) since they registered with CQC in 2020. At the time of the inspection, the provider had 257 vehicles and 463 staff.

Updated 3 December 2021

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of FALCK (London) on 21 and 23 September. Following the inspection, we issued a warning notice on 7 October under Section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

We rated it as requires improvement because:

• Leaders and teams did not have a local risk register to manage performance.
• Governance processes were not always fully effective.
• The service did not always manage patient safety incidents well. Staff did not always recognise and report incidents and near misses. Managers investigated incidents but lessons learned were not always shared with the whole team and the wider service in a timely way.
• We found processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service were not embedded.

However:

• All staff received an induction before beginning work for FALCK, and mandatory training was given to ensure staff kept up-to-date with key skills.
• Staff felt supported by the management team and enjoyed their work.
• The registered manager and the management team welcomed feedback and used it to make improvements to the service. We found the leadership team were responsive to our concerns
• The design, maintenance and use of facilities, premises, vehicles and equipment kept people safe. Staff were trained to use them. Staff managed clinical waste well.

Updated 3 December 2021

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of FALCK (London) on 21 and 23 September. Following the inspection, we issued a warning notice on 7 October under Section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

We rated it as requires improvement because:

• Leaders and teams did not have a local risk register to manage performance.
• Governance processes were not always fully effective.
• The service did not always manage patient safety incidents well. Staff did not always recognise and report incidents and near misses. Managers investigated incidents but lessons learned were not always shared with the whole team and the wider service in a timely way.
• We found processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service were not embedded.

However:

• All staff received an induction before beginning work for FALCK, and mandatory training was given to ensure staff kept up-to-date with key skills.
• Staff felt supported by the management team and enjoyed their work.
• The registered manager and the management team welcomed feedback and used it to make improvements to the service. We found the leadership team were responsive to our concerns
• The design, maintenance and use of facilities, premises, vehicles and equipment kept people safe. Staff were trained to use them. Staff managed clinical waste well.

Updated 2 July 2019

The service worked under contract with NHS ambulance trusts across Greater London and South East England to provide emergency and urgent ambulance services. Crews operated under the policies and procedures of the trust to which they were contracted.

The service had its own governance structure, however, a number of aspects of senior leadership and governance, for example HR were shared across both services.

Overall, we rated this service as good, a patients were kept safe from harm by staff adhering to best practice. There were clear governance structures in place to minimise the risk of harm. Incidents were well reported and learning from incidents was shared across the provider as a whole.