Private ambulance firm deregistered by CQC

The CQC had already suspended services at KFA Medical, which is based in Keighley, West Yorkshire, from January this year because of concerns over patient safety.

A follow-up inspection in June – which has just been made public  –  led to the cancellation of its registration as a service provider and that of its registered manager, listed on the CQC website as Christopher Golding.

The firm provided patient transport services to Airedale General Hospital and the Royal Bolton Hospital, according to its Facebook page. However, these would have been halted in January when the service was suspended.

The cancellation of its registration means the company can no longer provide transport services, remote triage and medical advice, but it can continue with activities such as first-aid training which are not regulated by the CQC.

In the nine months prior to this, 6,477 patients were transported between hospitals by the company, according to the CQC, and HSJ understands most of the work done by KFA for the trust was taking discharged patients home.

No basic training

According to the report, inspectors – who carried out an unannounced inspection of the safe and well-led domains but did not rate them – found Disclosure and Barring Service checks on employees were not up to date or had not been carried out and when looking at four staff files none had current basic life support training.

They also found one of the ambulances had to be jumpstarted on the day of the inspection and the blue emergency light did not work on either of them. 

Concerns also raised included:

• An external governance manager commissioned by the company expressed doubts about the registered manager’s abilities and understanding of how they carried out their role, and the registered manager could not answer questions about the company’s policies.
  
  
• A staff member asked for proof that the inspection team had taken lateral flow tests on the morning of the inspection but only one staff file examined showed evidence that employees were taking LFTs.
  
  
• The provider had drafted new policies and procedures since an earlier inspection in March but these seemed to be generic and some read as if they were intended for a larger organisation.
  
  
• Staff involved in the patient transport service had training to help them cope with distressed patients, carers and families. Staff admitted the risk assessment process was “not very robust”.
  
  
• Equipment vehicles and premises were visibly dirty. At the time of the inspection, two ambulances had been hired from another operator but had not been cleaned.

Many of these issues had been raised at earlier inspections in January and March.

Sarah Dronsfield, the CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said: “We have been working with the provider since their suspension in January, however when we carried out this inspection, we found the provider had been unable to implement and sustain the necessary improvements to assure us that people were receiving safe care.

“This action should send a very clear message to all providers of independent health and care services that while taking enforcement action of this nature is not something we take lightly, we will always take action where appropriate to protect the health and safety of patients,” Ms Dronsfield said.

A Bolton Foundation Trust spokesman said: “We always ensure we procure any services through NHS frameworks. When a provider is no longer registered to deliver services we will procure a new supplier through the framework.”

Airedale Foundation Trust said it had mainly used the company for discharges and has now found another provider. It had undertaken a full procurement before appointing KFA and the contract had a clear monitoring framework. KFA had fully engaged with the trust and were open about CQC requests and regulations, it added. 

HSJ approached the company for comment.