Agenda item

1.1.        The Committee considered a report on the latest developments regarding the Patient Transport Service (PTS).

1.2.        Maninder Singh Dulku, PTS Programme Director, Sussex CCGs; Paul Stevens, Director of Commercial Services, South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS); and Stacey Warren, Business Manager, SCAS, responded to questions from the Committee.

Key lessons from previous contract

1.3.        Mr Dulku said that a key recommendation of the independent report into the previous mobilisation of PTS was to employ a specialist PTS advisor. The CCGs appointed one in August 2016 and they have been pivotal in the process, and will be retained for a further six months to ensure an ongoing monitoring of the new contract. The CCGs have also avoided the mistake of attempting a one day contract transfer and have instead opted for a two phase transfer: phase one commenced on 1 March and phase two will commence on 1 April. Some lessons were learned from phase one that have been adopted for phase two.

Online booking systems

1.4.        Paul Stevens explained that there was a problem with the online booking system during phase one. SCAS quickly had the software supplier resolve the issue and, following further testing, there have been no further issues. Online booking will be available from 1 April.

Capacity of SCAS to take on both Surrey and Sussex PTS

1.5.        Paul Stevens explained that the Sussex contract will have its own management team that will report to SCAS’s Board. It is standard practice throughout the area in which the trust operates for SCAS to have a local contract team manage the PTS, as each area has their own locations and demands.

1.6.        Paul Stevens said that he did not expect every aspect of the new contract to be perfect from the outset and it will take time to embed and understand some of the issues and concerns about the service over the past year. However, the transition team has worked extremely hard and has carried out 150 one-to-one TUPE meetings with future team members– this is resource heavy and demanding but must be done in order to get TUPE contracts right. SCAS will continue with its established managers for the first 2 weeks of April, rather than bringing in new managers, to help reduce issues with the transition.

1.7.        Paul Stevens added that the activity levels experienced from 1 March were different to the expected levels developed beforehand from the data provided – certain assumptions are now being made about the level of demand from 1 April.

1.8.        Catherine Ashton said that ESHT considers that the PTS it is in a better position than it was this time last year. There have been a few problems but they have been nothing more than anticipated for a new service and are being resolved in the way ESHT would want to see. The Trust has no clinical risks or safety concerns that have been identified about the PTS. 

Complexity of phased approach

1.9.        Paul Stevens argued that the phased approach is a good idea but one hurdle it has is that staff are transferred over at different periods meaning that temporary staff must be in place for those areas not yet transferred over, for example, on 1 March SCAS took responsibility for transport activity but had not yet transferred over any Coperforma call handlers; SCAS had to put in place temporary call handling staff which was a challenge initially.

Number of staff transferring

1.10.      Paul Stevens explained that although there was no legal right for staff to be transferred from Docklands and VM Langford to SCAS via a TUPE process, because of the ordeal they had been through, the CCGs took the decision to request that SCAS undertake a TUPE process. Stacey Warren said that 72 staff have been transferred and no more than two chose not to.

Cost to the CCG of change in provider

1.11.      Maninder Singh Dulku told HOSC that the financial costs are still being worked out but will be available in due course.

Eligibility process

1.12.      Paul Stevens said that the re-eligibility review period for patients is set out in the PTS contract at 28 days because PTS eligibility is based on medical requirements and people’s circumstances can change quickly. This does not apply to people using transport for renal or oncology who have access to the block-booking of transport.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

1.13.      Maninder Singh Dulku said that the PTS advisor considered the original KPIs for the Coperforma contract to be “wholly unrealistic”. A process of dialogue with SCAS and the PTS advisor has since taken place to revise the KPIs. The PTS Programme Board signed off these revised KPIs in February 2017.

Journey planning

1.14.      Paul Stevens said that SCAS has a different service model to Coperforma. The Trust runs a planned service where journeys are booked and planned beforehand and drivers know, when they first log in to their smartphones in the morning, what their journeys will be for the day. Under the previous contract most drivers were allocated visits depending on their availability during the day. Stacey Warren explained that SCAS also operates a ‘buddy’ system elsewhere where the same group of patients are taken to and from the healthcare centre by the same driver and plans are in place to implement it in East Sussex.

1.15.      The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) note the report;

2) request an email update in the summer on the performance of the PTS including patient satisfaction.