Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ask the Care Quality Commission to investigate the project run by South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust between December 2014 and February 2015 on the treatment of emergency calls to NHS 111.

Jane Ellison

The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and adult social care, advises the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is scheduled for a comprehensive inspection in 2016.

The CQC advises it has attended a recent risk summit conducted by NHS England. The decisions or actions arising from the NHS England risk summit will be one of the factors considered in the timing of any forthcoming CQC inspection.

NHS England undertook an external investigation of the project, the report of which was published by NHS England on 5 November 2015.

We are advised that Monitor is taking action with South East Coast Ambulance Service Foundation Trust regarding concerns about the project and the regulator is working with the Trust now to identify the negative impact this project could have had on patients. It is Monitor’s function to undertaken such investigations independently of the Department. Monitor and Departmental officials regularly discuss such issues on a routine basis.

As part of regulatory action, Monitor advises it has asked the trust to carry out a detailed independent review of the impact the project had on patients. Monitor has asked the Trust to do this with the help of an external expert, who the regulator will select. The full details of what the review will look at and how long it will take are being worked on by the trust and Monitor, including consideration of publication of the review findings.