CQC rates London Ambulance Service ‘inadequate’

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection found poorly trained staff, a lack of equipment and a reported culture of harassment and bullying.

Along with slow response times, the service was criticised for the high number of unfilled vacancies.

In response to the report, the Trust said it had taken action to address its failings.

Professor Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals, said: "I am recommending that London Ambulance Service be placed into special measures, because I believe that this is the step necessary to ensure this vital service gets the support it needs to improve.

"The trust has been performing poorly on response times since March 2014. This is a very serious problem, which the trust clearly isn't able to address alone, and which needs action to put right."

Trust chief executive Dr Fionna Moore said: "We would like to apologise to Londoners and say how sorry we are that we haven't come up to the standards they should expect of us and we are working really hard to address those issues."

Moore argued that the difficulties in recruiting staff were partly due to the high cost of living in London, in addition to housing shortages.

Despite staff shortages, Moore pointed out the Trust had been successful in recruiting 167 new members of staff, while an additional 200 were in training.

In the years leading up to 2014, the trust was ranked the best performing service in the country for dealing with emergency category A calls, which require attendance within eight minutes. However since then, services only hit this target 25 per cent of the time.

GMB union national officer, Rehana Azam, said: "The underlying problem is a shortage of staff. There is a seriously high vacancy rate in the LAS and other ambulance services.

"We are pleased the CQC identified this and perhaps now it can be addressed in full.

"As a result of staff shortages, existing staff have had to shoulder more responsibility."

Read more