MP Charlie Elphicke is calling on the entire board of South East Coast Ambulance Service to resign – after the trust was branded inadequate.

SECAmb has been plunged into special measures following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The Dover and Deal MP said: “It’s clear from this report that the SECAmb board failed to take control and make the improvements needed to our ambulance service after the damning report by Monitor (health regulator) last year.

“It’s clear the board is not fit for purpose and the directors should all go.

“We need to start over to make sure that patients are kept safe and that emergency calls are properly dealt with. We need a new board to get on with fixing our ambulance service.”

The CQC rated the safety of services as inadequate, reporting that there were “not enough staff to keep patients safe, [leading] to long delays in calls being answered and calls being abandoned by patients.”

Staff informed inspectors that the trust had 3,300 open incidents awaiting investigation.
The CQC also rated the leadership of the Trust as inadequate, with staff reporting “a culture of bullying and harassment.”

The report “saw evidence of inter-executive grievance” and states that “roles and accountabilities within the executive team lacked clarity”.

Governors told the CQC there had been “a lack of action relating to the concerns expressed to the executive.”

Last October Monitor criticised South East Coast Ambulance Service for a project which increased how long some patients were waiting for ambulances.

They transferred some NHS 111 calls to the 999 emergency system to give staff up to 10 minutes more time to respond to the call.

he project, which ran between December 2014 and February 2015, was launched in response to the high pressures it was facing last winter.

Geriant Davies, SECAmb acting chief executive, said of the new CQC findings: “While we are pleased that the dedication and care of our staff is highlighted as good in this report, we are sorry that we have not met the standards expected in a number of other areas.

“Following initial feedback from the CQC we have already been working on and implementing a number of improvements.

“I would like to reassure everyone we serve that I, along with my senior team, am committed and focused on ensuring these necessary changes continue.

“We are determined to implement the changes required to restore confidence in our service.”