South East Coast Ambulance Trust rating downgraded by watchdog

A watchdog has downgraded the rating for South East Coast Ambulance Service from good to requires improvement.

An inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in August looked at Secamb's urgent and emergency care, and its resilience teams.

The trust's individual rating for caring remains rated as good.

Secamb interim chief executive, Siobhan Melia, said the trust is committed to making improvements following the report.

Deanna Westwood, CQC's network director, said the inspection found staff on the frontline "doing their utmost to provide safe and effective care to people across Kent, Surrey and Sussex".

"However, additional pressures on the service, which included an increase in staff sickness and increased delays in handovers from partner organisations, meant that the quality of care we saw being delivered had declined," she added.

"It was for this reason that we have changed their overall rating from good to requires improvement."

In June a CQC report found bullying had become "normalised" at Secamb.

Following the latest report, the trust said it has an improvement plan in place, which includes improving learning from incidents, further recruitment and greater retention of staff and reducing hospital handover delays.

Ms Melia, from the trust, said: "I am really pleased that the excellent care provided by our staff has once again been recognised and rated as good by the CQC, despite the huge pressures they face every day.

"We have already taken concerns around our culture and leadership extremely seriously and we are committed to making further improvements."

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