East Midlands Ambulance Service 'improving'

EMAS said it was happy that it would be back to normal monitoring

East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) has made significant improvements, according to the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA).

EMAS had been criticised over response times, patient care and leadership, which led to an increase in monitoring by the authority.

However, it said the ambulance service had since made progress in improving care quality and services to patients.

Sue Noyes, EMAS chief executive, said there was still work to do.

Response times

EMAS was also criticised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after an unannounced inspection in January.

Its report said there were problems around the care and welfare of patients, safety and suitability of equipment and staffing levels.

New figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) also suggest ambulances in the East Midlands have been failing to get to some of the most critical cases on time.

However, the TDA, which oversees EMAS, said it would now revert to normal monthly monitoring arrangements after targets were met between April and June.

A spokeswoman for the authority said: "[EMAS] has delivered significant improvements over the last year and we will continue to support them.

"We will meet regularly with the leadership team to review and monitor the trust's progress, with the usual level of performance management and oversight to ensure response times continue to improve."

Ms Noyes said: "This is a step in the right direction, however, we know that our work continues to put in place all the improvements necessary so we can achieve our targets for the rest of the year."