EoE ambulance trust needs to up game on rural response times

The CQC report says that the trust did not meet all its key performance indicators for response times but it was taking satisfactory action on this. Performance on the A8 target was lower in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Mid-Essex and on the A19 target in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

The inspection report also highlighted issues around turnaround times for ambulances arriving at hospitals - not always due to the ambulances. Waits at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital were a particular issue with one paramedic saying 12 ambulances had been queuing at a time.

Filling in electronic patient records may be contributing to delays in getting ambulances back on the road: one staff member had transferred their patient within 12 minutes of arriving at a hospital but then spent 15 minutes filling in the record.