The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) has welcomed the third interim briefing issued today by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) – ‘Harm caused by delays in transferring patients to the right place of care’ – which underlines how the ongoing pressures in the NHS urgent and emergency care system are taking a huge toll on staff wellbeing, leading to the provision of unsafe care and directly causing significant additional harm to patients.
Martin Flaherty OBE, QAM, Managing Director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) said:
“This latest report by the HSIB shines yet another spotlight on the key links between a highly pressured system, the subsequent breakdown in quality of care and consequent harm to patients, and the significant negative effects that has on staff wellbeing.
“Harrowing and upsetting in parts, it reflects many of the similar experiences and emotions conveyed by ambulance staff in our original AACE report entitled, ‘Delayed hospital handovers: Impact assessment of patient harm’ which was published in November 2021.
“Through AACE, the NHS ambulance sector has consistently highlighted how patients are coming to additional significant harm due to unnecessary hospital handover delays when our ambulance crews are unable to transfer them into the care of hospital staff at emergency departments. Being treated in the back of an ambulance outside a hospital is not a safe or viable solution for any patient, while the negative effect on the morale and wellbeing of our ambulance crews is significant, something that the HSIB investigators have clearly taken on board.
“Additionally, we must not forget that while those ambulances and crews are tied up at hospitals, they are unable to respond to other callers who may need lifesaving or urgent treatment. This is having a serious a knock-on effect on the morale and emotional wellbeing of staff, who are answering 999 calls or arriving to treat patients on the frontline and, in some cases, finding patients who have either died or who have come to additional unnecessary harm due to delays in the system.
“This is why we fully supported the HSIB’s launch of its first report in June 2022, which recommended that the Department of Health and Social Care should action an immediate strategic national response to address patient safety issues across health and social care arising from flow through and out of hospitals to the right place of care, work that has begun but needs continued momentum. At the time we also backed the HSIB call for a longer-term integrated review of the health and social care system to address these issues and we reiterate our support for that recommendation now.
“We also support the HSIB call today for the health and wellbeing of urgent and emergency care staff to be included as a critical component of patient safety in the NHS Patient Safety Strategy.”
Read the full HSIB Report here.
Details of The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) Crisis Line are here. The number for staff to call is 0300 373 0898 for those in crisis and 02477 987 922 for those who are not in crisis but need support. This national provision, commissioned by AACE and funded by NHS England, is in addition to support offered by ambulance services at a local level.
