Trust vows to check on ambulances

Health bosses in South Staffordshire have vowed to monitor the performance of the area's ambulance service to prevent patients being put at risk.

South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust revealed its response to an investigation by the NHS watchdog the Healthcare Commission into the former Staffordshire Ambulance Service. The commission launched the investigation in January 2007 after a whistle blowing incident and concerns were also raised by the ambulance service itself.

In its final report, published in April this year, the commission said the former ambulance service, which later merged to become part of the West Midlands Ambulance Service, had risked the lives of patients and staff in its bid to improve response times.

The Healthcare Commission said the service allowed untrained volunteers to race to blue light emergencies, dished-out controlled drugs to staff and failed to stop medicines vanishing from its stations.

The commission also found the service threatened to leave patients in tents outside over-stretched A&E departments to get ambulances back on the road.

However, the report admitted bosses at the trust had acted with the best of intentions.

As part of its recommendations the Healthcare Commission said organisations such as the PCT, which pays towards the ambulance service, needed to have systems in place to ensure the safety of patients.

At a meeting of the PCT board on Wednesday an action plan was agreed with West Midlands Ambulance Service.

As part of its bid to ensure patients are safe the PCT has installed an extra level of scrutiny and monitoring.

Stuart Poynor, chief executive of South Staffordshire PCT, told board members: "This is now being seen as a West Midlands wide response to what initially started in Staffordshire and everyone is working together to take on board points raised in the report."