South Central Ambulance Service
NHS Trust
You and your
ambulance service
Welcome
This booklet highlights what happens when you call 999 in a medical emergency and gives more information about the professionals who may attend you. It also outlines how you can help us to help the communities we serve. This could be as a community first responder, volunteer car driver, fundraiser, or by becoming a member on our journey towards becoming a foundation trust.
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust (SCAS) was established as a mobile healthcare provider in 2006. We serve an area of approximately 3,550 square miles spanning the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire.
We are here to provide excellent patient care to a resident
population of more than four million people, and the millions more visitors we receive every year.
Our primary purpose is to respond to 999 emergency calls and to get the right treatment to patients with life-threatening conditions, serious injury or illnesses, as quickly as possible. In addition, we provide pre-arranged transport for our patients to and from hospital appointments via our Patient Transport Service (PTS).
Last year our three emergency operations centres (EOCs) handled around half million emergency and urgent calls.
Demand is growing at around 4% to 5% annually.
We employ around 2,400 members of staff who work in a number of services across our four counties.
We are grateful to all our staff, co-responders, community first responders,
volunteer car drivers and volunteers who work with us to provide the best possible care to our patients now and in the future.
Always call 999 in a medical emergency – that is if someone is seriously ill or injured, and their life is at risk.
If it is not a life-threatening emergency and you, or the person you are with, do not need immediate medical attention, please consider other options before you dial 999.
Talk to your local pharmacist; call NHS Direct on 0845 4647; call or visit your GP; go to the NHS Choices website or make your own way to your local Minor Injuries Unit, Walk-in Centre, Urgent Care Centre, or Emergency Department.
Choose the best treatment for your needs and ‘Choose Well’. This will ensure we are able to help the people who need us the most.
For more information, please visit our website on www. southcentralambulance.nhs.uk And remember, arriving in an ambulance does not necessarily mean you will be treated more quickly.
999 is a lifeline
Use it - don’t
abuse it!
Useful contacts can be found on page 19.
Did you know?
£257
Average cost of each incident we attend
£480,000
Average cost of putting a two person ambulance on the road for a year
41%
The number of patients we attended last year but did not convey to hospital
Your call
journey
When you call 999 an operator will answer your call and ask you which emergency service you need. In a medical emergency make sure you ask for the ambulance service and you will be put through to one of our call handlers who will ask you for your address, the phone number you are calling from and what has happened.
At the same time this information is received, a dispatcher will allocate and dispatch an ambulance or another appropriate resource to the scene of the incident.
Our response may include an emergency ambulance, rapid response vehicle or motorbike, a community first responder or a combination of these.
There is a clinical support desk in each of our emergency operations centres. This is manned by nurses and emergency care practitioners who provide telephone clinical assessment for patients who have dialled 999. This is to ensure patients are signposted to the most appropriate care for them.
Who may care
for you
Our front line staff are dedicated and skilled professionals
committed to caring for you when you need them most. In addition, we have trained co-responders from the Police and Fire and Rescue Services, staff responders and community first responders who begin early treatment for patients experiencing medical emergencies in rural or remote communities while an ambulance is en route to them.
We also call on BASICS doctors (volunteer NHS doctors working with the ambulance service), and two air ambulance charities. They work with us to attend patients who are critically ill and suffering a medical emergency. They also attend some road traffic accidents to ensure help arrives to patients as soon as possible.
Our frontline
staff
Ambulance care assistants
Ambulance care assistants (ACAs) work for our Patient Transport Service driving the elderly, sick or vulnerable people and those living with a disability, to and from outpatient clinics, day centres and routine hospital appointments.Emergency care assistants
Emergency care assistants (ECAs) work together with a clinically qualified practitioner responding to 999 emergency calls. With the support of a clinically qualified practitioner, they provide essential emergency care assisting clinicians indelivering a wide range of treatments to patients. This can include defibrillation and drug preparation.
Ambulance technicians
Ambulance technicians (ATs) respond to 999 calls working alone in rapid response vehicles (RRVs) or alongside ambulance healthcare professionals. They administer a wide range of treatments and some drug therapies to patients to promote their recovery at scene or en route to hospital.Paramedics
Paramedics are senior clinicians within the ambulance service. They work alone on RRVs, or on motorbikes, and are often the senior staff member in double crewed ambulances working alongside an ambulance technician or emergency care assistant.
They possess advanced life support skills and are trained
to administer a wide range of drugs intravenously to improve a patient’s condition.
Ambulance nurses
Ambulance nurses are an innovation for the ambulance service. They work on double crewed ambulances alongside ambulance technicians or emergency care assistants.Emergency care
practitioners
Emergency care practitioners (ECPs) hold a degree in Paramedic Science and have undergone advanced training to gain additional knowledge and skills. They are qualified to administer a wider range of drugs than a paramedic, possess advanced diagnostic and assessment skills and can stitch wounds.
Did you know?
633,962
The number of patient journeys by PTS last year
5,954,570
The number of parcels of mail and goods delivered each year by our Logistics Services
11,000
The number of people trained by our Commercial Training team in a yearPatient Transport Service
Our Patient Transport Service (PTS) performs an important role in taking patients to and from their hospital appointments. All our PTS patients have a medical need for transport. We ensure efficient use of clinical services by getting them to and from their treatment centre appointments on time.
Out of Hours
If you phone an out of hours service you may be put through to one of our call centres. We will take details from you and transfer your details to a health professional, such as a nurse or doctor, who will help you. Other useful out of hours contacts can be found on page 19 of this booklet.
Our
Commercial
Services
South Central Ambulance Service
NHS Trust
Get involved
& have your say
Pull out
form
Please complete form and return in an envelope to the Freepost addressYour details
Fields marked with * are mandatory
* Title
(eg Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Dr) County you live in
* First name *Telephone (home/work) *Last name Mobile *Address *Date of birth
You must be aged 14 or over to become a member; and 16 or over to stand for election to the Council of Governors. Under 16s should seek consent from parents or legal guardians prior to applying.
*Postcode
We would prefer to send you information about the Trust and membership issues by email.
Your email address:
If you would prefer to receive this by post, please tick here.
Public Register
We are required to keep a public register of our members. If you do not wish your name to be included, please tick this box.We welcome your feedback on the services we currently provide and to help us shape the future direction of the service. To become a member of our Trust, please either complete this form on line via our website at www.southcentralambulance.nhs.uk or return it in an envelope FREEPOST to:
Communications - membership
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust FREEPOST RSJY-USUX-GKBE
7-8 Talisman Business Centre, Talisman Road Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 6HR
Membership is free, flexible and doesn’t have to be time consuming. You can participate as much or as little as you like. The different ways you can become involved are listed in this publication (p13).
About you
We want to involve the whole community and build a membership that is representative of the population we serve. The following information will help us to know if we have achieved this.
Gender
¨ Male ¨ Female
Ethnicity
White ¨ British ¨ Irish ¨ Other
Mixed ¨ White and Black Caribbean ¨ White and Black African ¨ White and Asian ¨ Other
Asian or Asian British ¨ Indian ¨ Pakistani ¨ Bangladeshi ¨ Other
Black or Black British ¨ Caribbean ¨ African ¨ Other Other ¨ Chinese ¨ Other ethnic group
Do you consider yourself to have a disability ¨ Yes ¨ No
Have you been a patient of the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust within the past three years? ¨ Yes ¨ No
Type of employment
¨ Employed ¨ Self employed ¨ Student ¨ Retired ¨ Other
Getting involved
I would be interested in (tick one or more): ¨ Receiving regular information about SCAS ¨ Attending meetings or events
¨ Taking part in surveys, consultations and questionnaires ¨ Standing for election to the Council of Governors
I would like to become a member of the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust which is becoming a Foundation Trust
Signature Date
Thank you for applying to be a member of the Trust. We look forward to working with you in the future.
For more information about membership, please email us at
Getinvolved@scas.nhs.uk or write to us at the Freepost address shown overleaf, or visit our website at www.southcentralambulance.nhs.uk
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Communications - membership
FREEPOST RSJY-USUX-GKBE
7-8 Talisman Business Centre
Talisman Road
Bicester
Oxfordshire
Community Equipment
Service
Our Community Equipment Service operates from a large warehouse and distribution centre at Theale, Berkshire. From here, we provide a large range of equipment and patient aids that support independent living at home. We also provide a delivery and collection service between hospitals, GP surgeries and other health clinics.
To find out more please telephone 0118 936 5401. Future plans for the Berkshire Community Equipment Service involve working in partnership with those who purchase the service to develop a shop front which would sell equipment through a catalogue to the residents of Berkshire.
Logistics Services
Our Logistics Services deliver and collect items such as medical records, pathology specimens, patient medical records and mail on a daily basis to and from acute hospitals, community hospitals, GP surgeries, dentists, opticians, pharmacies and other clinics. They also provide a staff shuttle service in East Berkshire.
Commercial Training
Our Commercial Training is accredited by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to deliver a variety of First Aid at Work and Emergency First Aid courses. We also run First Bike/Person on Scene courses accredited by the Royal College of Surgeons.
Events Management
We have a dedicated Events Management team teaching young children and teenagers how to put adults into the recovery position and how to make a 999 call. They also train staff to teach first aid at work.We attend a number of major events throughout the year across the four counties we serve. Of the 2.5 million members of the public attending these major events in our area we estimate that around 5,000 of these will seek medical assistance for anything from sporting injuries to sunburn.
…as a career
There has never been a more exciting time to join us. The Secretary of State for Health has set out in the White Paper Equity
and Excellence: Liberating the NHS how the Government will: • put patients at the heart of
everything the NHS does;
• focus on continuously
improving what really matters to patients: the outcome of their healthcare;
• empower and liberate clinicians to innovate and to focus on improving healthcare services.
Over the last 10 years the role of front line ambulance crews has changed dramatically and continues to evolve to meet a growing demand for increasingly flexible emergency and urgent healthcare.
Our ambulance service offers a range of clinically focused career opportunities to deliver care to the communities we serve. These include working on the front line and in both the emergency and GP Out of Hours settings, or working in our emergency operations centres.
Our non emergency services staff also enjoy greater clinical training and opportunities than previously. They can respond to certain types of emergency call, such as cardiac arrest. This allows us to help more patients more quickly across the region. All of our current vacancies are uploaded to the NHS Jobs website at www.jobs.nhs.uk For more information, please contact recruitment@scas.nhs.uk
Care for your
community
…as a community first
responder
In the case of cardiac arrest, for every minute that passes without cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation a patient’s chances of survival decreases by 14%.
We have a number of community first responder schemes, where volunteers are trained in basic life-saving skills, such as the use of the automated external defibrillator (AED).
Community first responders (CFRs) use these skills to provide early and often vital intervention for patients suffering
life-threatening emergencies in the immediate vicinity of where they live or work.
Once an ambulance crew arrives at the scene, community first responders work alongside a clinically qualified practitioner.
Interested in becoming a CFR?
Then telephone 0800 587 0207, or email cfr@scas.nhs.uk now!
…as a volunteer car driver
Our volunteer car drivers carry out an extremely important role within our non-emergency Patient Transport Service by taking people to and from hospital for outpatientsappointments. All our voluntary drivers receive a mileage
allowance for the work they do and normally spend most of their time working in their local area. For more information, email volunteer.cardriver@scas.nhs.uk or telephone 01962 717 276.
...as a fundraiser
South Central Ambulance League of Friends is a voluntary organisation that is dedicated to raising money across our region to support established community first responder schemes and help set up new ones. It is the only League of Friends associated with an ambulance service in England. For more information about the League of Friends go towww.ambulancefriends.org.uk We frequently call upon air support from both the Thames
Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.
These charitable organisations rely on fundraising initiatives and donations to continue to provide life saving support across our area, 365 days a year.
To offer your support for Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, please telephone 0300 999 0135 or email
info@tvacaa.org
For Hampshire, please telephone 02380 333 377 or email
enquiries@hiow-airambulance. org.uk
Did you know?
1,200
The number of volunteer CFRs across our four counties
130
The number of volunteer car drivers across our four counties
£105,439
The amount of money donated to our charity this year
While we are committed to providing you with excellent clinical care and safe and efficient transport, our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is your first point of contact should you have a compliment, comment, concern or complaint. We will listen to your comments and answer any concerns
you may have. In line with current Department of Health requirements, we try to resolve any complaint in an open and timely way. We aim to provide you with a satisfactory resolution to any issue you may have with our service and to ensure we learn from your experience to improve patient care.
Email: PALS@scas.nhs.uk Or telephone: 01869 365 147 for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire; or
01962 898 053 for Hampshire
Our patient representatives report to the Trust’s Care Quality and Safety Committee. It
comprises members of the public from across the four counties we serve.
The panel meets regularly and has a work plan which includes the recruitment of additional members. They also undertake interviews with patients to ensure continual improvement to services.
Members also ensure transfer of information between organisations, where appropriate, and perform a vital role on the Trust’s care committees.
If you would like to get involved in our work, please email
Getinvolved@scas.nhs.uk or
telephone 01869 365 000
On our
journey
Towards
Foundation Trust
We are seeking to become an NHS Foundation Trust and to involve our patients, our local communities and our staff more closely in the way we run our services now and in the future. Become a member of South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust and have your say in shaping how 999 emergency healthcare is delivered.
We are committed to engaging with the many and diverse communities we serve and recognise the benefits of having a diverse workforce.
Sign up as a member now and you’ll be able to:
• become actively involved in our work and help shape our future plans;
• get a better understanding about what we do, and help promote our work;
• be consulted on any major changes that we are proposing to services;
• receive regular information about what we are doing ;
• attend open days, seminars and events;
• take part in focus groups and surveys;
• ensure your views and those of your community are heard. The only criteria for membership is that you should live in the counties we serve, be aged over 14 (14 to16 year olds should seek consent from parents or a legal guardian), and not have a record of having either been dismissed from our service, or having been involved in an incident of violence or abuse against a member of our staff.
If you meet these criteria and wish to apply to become a member, please complete the pull out form in the middle of this booklet and return to the Freepost address on the form. Alternatively you can fill out the same form on line via our website at www. southcentralambulance.nhs.uk The data you supply will be used only to contact you about the Trust, membership or other related issues.
The information will remain confidential and will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act.
For more information about becoming a member, please either phone 01869 365 000 or email
Getinvolved@scas.nhs.uk
Did you know?
If you require more detailed
information about our
performance and finance,
you can find this in our
Annual Report and Accounts
which is available on our website at
www.southcentralambulance.nhs.uk
Useful
contacts
�
NHS Direct
For health advice and reassurance 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
Tel 0845 46 47
Web www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/
NHS Choices
Your health, your choices - a comprehensive information service that helps to put you in control of your healthcare. Find out from this website how to access your local NHS and healthcare services Web www.nhs.uk/
Alcoholics Anonymous
National Helpline: 0845 769 7555 Web www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Narcotics Anonymous
National helpline 0300 999 1212 Web www.ukna.org/Produced by
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust
7-8 Talisman Business Centre, Talisman Road, Bicester, Oxfordshire OX26 6HR Tel 01869 365 000 - Fax 01869 322 814 - www.southcentralambulance.nhs.uk
gs@scas.0910
