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At the EMAS Trust Board meeting on Monday 25 March 2013, it was agreed to proceed with the Being the Best programme.
This means we will conitnue to develop plans to create 9 hubs, 19 ambulance stations and 108 community ambulance stations.
The Board agreed that the hub-and spoke-model, together with the other changes included in Being the Best, and with further investment from our commissioners, will improve response times to emergency calls and improve the working lives our frontline staff.
The changes agreed for our estate will take between three and five years to complete.
To view the media release issued after the decision had been made, please click here
Next steps
Estate Strategy
The Estate The Estate Strategy component of Being the Best is a five-year plan, and so the changes will not be immediate.
Over the next three to six months we will progress our planning and implementation of the 108 community ambulance stations, twinning of the proposed existing ambulance stations and further development of the estate strategy, in conjunction with divisional management and staff who sit on our various Being the Best working groups.
We are currently negotiating with other public organisations about sharing premises for our community ambulance stations. When a final agreement has been reached with these organisations we will share the news with you.
Due to our engagement work, we believe approximately 70% of our community ambulance stations are going to be co-located with police, fire or other public sector organisations. This will help to improve our working relationship with the services we work closely with and help us to keep ambulance resources in rural locations rather than being drawn back to urban-based stations when staff, for example, require a meal break.
To view the Estate Strategy, including location of hubs, stations and community ambulance stations click here and view paper PB/13/37
Management restructure
The management restructure was revised to support and enhance the quality of care, with clinical leadership embedded through the roles of Consultant Paramedics, Locality Quality Managers and Clinical Team Mentors.
The restructure will help us to ensure effective communication by creating clear lines of accountability and fewer managerial tiers, and will develop a culture of supportive, consistent management leadership, through the training and development of all appointees.
Staff appointed will start their new roles on 1 April.
Rota review
Discussions are ongoing in divisions to ensure our rotas match the patterns of demand and we are therefore providing the right level of service to respond to emergency calls received in the East Midlands.
Currently there are not enough duty hours allocated to cover the high demand during the middle of the day and too many to cover the lower demand in the middle of the night.
Service delivery model
The service model sets out how we will ensure that we provide patients with the right response when a 999 call is made. Details can be found in the Board paper PB/13/37 via http://www.emas.nhs.uk/about-us/trust-board This paper was not approved at the 25 March 2013 meeting but will be reviewed at the next meeting in April.
Make Ready programme
The make ready programme provides support staff who will clean and stock and check vehicles before use. This means that we can be sure that staff have the right equipment and safe vehicles when they are needed for patients. More details can be found in the Board paper PB/13/37 via http://www.emas.nhs.uk/about-us/trust-board/
Fleet strategy
Our vehicles are one of the most essential of our physical assets – we treat patients and save lives in our ambulances; they are the workplace of our frontline clinicians and allow us to provide a caring clinical environment for our patients.
The Fleet strategy sets out the number of vehicles required and the results of a review into how we manage and maintain the fleet in the future.
We will now establish a project working group to develop the output specification for fleet services to support the estate strategy, operating and service models.
Keeping you informed
Updates on all of these components of Being the Best will feature in our newsletter EMAS Aspect which is emailed to stakeholders and published on our website at http://www.emas.nhs.uk/about-us/emas-aspect/
Being the Best Background
In 2012, EMAS launched its ‘Being the Best’ programme. Designed to improve response times and the service we offer to the people of the East Midlands as well as provide better support for our staff. To do this EMAS proposed changes in our management structure, the properties owned and leased by the organisation, our service delivery model and working practices.
As part of our commitment to involve staff and the public we carried out a three month consultation exercise. Thank you to everyone who took the time to consider our proposals and respond.
The report detailing the results is available on this site by clicking here (Paper PB/13/005). It’s encouraging that so many people across the region feel passionately about the Ambulance Service and have been able to have their say in shaping the proposals to improve response times and patient care.
As a direct result of the feedback from the consultation, we looked at additional options (see below) which would allow us to meet our ‘Being the Best’ ambitions. On the EMAS estate, in particular, it meant that we carried out further analysis to make sure the final proposals work operationally and financially. We worked closely with staff representatives and stakeholders to review the alternative options with the aim of developing final proposals for the Board to consider.
Final recommendations were published ahead of the Trust Board meeting on Monday 25 March 2013. You can access the final recommendations (paper PB-13-37) by clicking here
Consultation Response Report
The Being the Best Consultation Response Report was published on Monday 7 January 2013, and can be viewed by clicking here. The document is titled: PB/13/005: Being the Best Consultation Response Report.
Workshops and Options
In December 2012, we invited over 200 people to take part in three workshops being held in January 2013, and we held more in March, to look at options created having considered the feedback received during our three-month consultation.
Attendees were asked to rate how well they thought each estate option achieved each of the 14 criteria set. Criteria included performance improvement; equity of service access; efficient utilization of resources; innovation, patient safety and satisfaction; modernization and best practice; staff wellbeing; flexible to accommodate future demands; and, ease of implementation and impact on operations.
The options included:
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‘do nothing’
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Recruit more staff and have more vehicles
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Run with the 13 hub and 118 community ambulance posts model (as described before and during the consultation)
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Have more than 13 hubs/stations(this option includes the possibility of having 27 hubs supported by 108 Community Ambulance Posts).
Different estate options better meet different criteria and different options have different costs associated to them.
The final decision was made on Monday 25 March 2013, to proceed with the option of having more than 13 hubs/stations. See the top of this page for details.
To access the information pack shared with workshop attendees please click here and click here.
