Heart of England below standard on ambulance handovers

Board papers for Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group red-rated performance against the target for all handovers to be completed within 30 minutes.

Heart of England’s performance was actually 85.2 per cent for quarter one to date, and 89.2 per cent for month two, the most recent available data.

The board papers said: “A Black Country, Birmingham and Solihull wide proposal on handover fines based on national rules and local validation processes was provided to BSOL CCGs on 15 May 2013 for internal review.

“This process, in terms of penalties based on the above contract rules, will operate from June 2013.”

Ambulance conveyances to Heart of England were slightly lower in April and May than for the equivalent period 12 months ago.

The trust was improving on 30 minute handover performance, but handovers with 15 minutes were described as “variable” across its three sites compared with a year earlier.