Residents in the Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge area are being invited to have their say on what they think of the services provided by South West Ambulance Service.
The Care Quality Commission is asking for people’s views on South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.
The views and experiences will help inspectors decide what to look at when they inspect the ambulance trust under the Care Quality Commission’s current programme of comprehensive inspections.
The South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust serves a total of 5.3 million people across the region.
People are being encouraged to contact the team by the end of May 2016, if they want to tell them about their experiences of care: how calls are handled, how people are treated by ambulance staff and out the out of hours service, or to say where they would like to see improvements made in the future.
The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “Last year, NHS ambulance services received over nine million 999 calls resulting in the majority of patients being taken to an emergency department or directly admitted to a specialist department such as a stroke or coronary unit. At the same time nearly two million people were able to be treated at home thanks to the skills of ambulance staff.”
“Ambulance services are also responsible for helping to care for over five million patient transport service journeys each year for people who need help attending non- emergency pre planned appointments.”
“We need to make sure that ambulance services are safe, caring, responsive, effective and well led. This inspection will provide people with a clear picture of the quality of their local ambulance service, exposing poor or mediocre service if it exists as well as highlighting where the trust provides good and excellent services.”
“If you have recently needed to call out an ambulance in emergency, or have experience of using the service – we would like to hear from you. This is your opportunity to tell my team what you think, and make a difference to NHS services in the area.”
A full report of the inspectors’ findings will be published by the Care Quality Commission later in the year. The trust will be given one of the following ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requiring improvement, Inadequate.
Anyone who wishes to give their views to the inspection team can do so online at http://www.cqc.org.uk/syesouthwesternamb or by email at enquiries@cqc.org.uk or by letter to CQC, Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4PA or by calling 03000 61 61 6.
