Head Office is operated by Medicare EMS Group UK Limited. The main service provided by Medicare EMS Group UK Limited was first aid and medical cover for events. Events are not within our scope of regulation and we do not inspect events. However, at some events, the service provided emergency transport. Emergency patient transfers fall into our scope of regulation and require inspection.

The service provides support to event organisers in need of event medical cover. Events include horseracing, concerts and other large stadium events. Medicare EMS Group UK Limited supply rapid response vehicles crewed by paramedics, emergency medical technicians and first aid personnel.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 05 December 2017, along with an unannounced visit on 15 December 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.

From January to November 2017, Medicare EMS UK Limited completed 104 patient transfers by ambulance, from an event to an emergency department. We inspected this service under our urgent and emergency care framework.

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:

• Staff knew how to report incidents and learning from incidents was shared.

• There were safeguarding systems and processes to ensure that people were kept safe.
• Vehicles and equipment were visibly clean and serviced.
• Records were completed appropriately and stored securely.
• Medicines, including controlled drugs, were stored securely and in date.
• Policies and procedures were based on best practice, legislation and relevant national guidance and were easily accessible for staff.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and training to deliver effective care and treatment.
• The service had introduced the trauma network standards within their horseracing portfolio to ensure jockeys received the best quality outcomes following a traumatic injury.
• Patient and client feedback was consistently positive.
• There were clear lines of management responsibility and accountability, The executive management team displayed a clear ethos of patient safety and delivering a high standard of medical care.

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

• The service did not date patient feedback forms, therefore it was unclear when the patient feedback had been obtained. We raised this on our inspection and the service was responsive, immediately editing the patient feedback forms to include the date.

Heidi Smoult

Deputy Chief Inspector on behalf of the Chief Inspector of Hospitals

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