North East Ambulance Service

Last updated

North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Type NHS foundation trust
Established1 July 2006
Headquarters Newcastle Upon Tyne
Region served North East England
Area size3,200 square miles
Population2.6 million
ChairPeter Strachan
Chief executiveHelen Ray
Staff2,635 (2019/20) [1]
Website www.neas.nhs.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) is an NHS foundation trust responsible for providing NHS ambulance services in North East England. Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, NEAS provides emergency medical services to the metropolitan boroughs of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and City of Sunderland; the ceremonial counties of County Durham and Northumberland; and the area of North Yorkshire commonly known as Teesside. NEAS was formed on 1 July 2006, following the merger of the existing North East Ambulance Service with the Tees division of the Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS). Northumbria Ambulance Service and County Durham Ambulance Service had previously merged on 1 April 1999. [2]

Contents

NEAS is one of ten Ambulance Trusts providing England with emergency medical services, receiving direct government funding for its role. NEAS also provides patient transport services (PTS), or non-emergency services, to patients in the area.

Geography

NEAS headquarters is currently at Bernicia House on Newburn Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne.

There are three control rooms currently operating for NEAS, one at the Newcastle upon Tyne headquarters at Bernicia House in Newburn, one at Russell House in Hebburn, and one at Winter House in Billingham. [3] 999 emergency calls and NHS 111 urgent care calls are answered by call takers at all three sites.

There are several stations across the North East run jointly with the local fire services such as Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service and County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service. [4]

Performance

NEAS was one of four trusts in the country to receive a "good" rating in the 2006/7 Healthcare Commission Healthcheck [5] report. This was the highest rating achieved by any ambulance service for provision of care.

Between April and October 2013, the service recorded 10,072 "incidents" in which handovers to hospital accident and emergency departments had taken longer than 30 minutes and 499 which took longer than one hour resulting in penalty fines of approximately £250,000 for the service. [6]

In 2018, the trust said it would need to recruit 100 more paramedics in order to meet new ambulance performance targets. [7]

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in England was that delayed ambulance response times became a "continuing theme due to the unprecedented demand the service is currently experiencing”. In response to repeated complaints about patient harm the trust reported that “on each occasion demand outweighed available resources at the time these patients required an emergency ambulance” and that the board “can take assurance that in each of these cases no missed opportunities were found to send an ambulance sooner”. [8] In January 2022 call handlers were told they should consider asking patients with suspected strokes and heart attacks to be transported by friends or family because ambulance response times were under such pressure. [9]

CQC performance rating

In its last inspection of the service in January 2023, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) gave the following ratings on a scale of outstanding (the service is performing exceptionally well), good (the service is performing well and meeting our expectations), requires improvement (the service isn't performing as well as it should) and inadequate (the service is performing badly):

Inspection Reports
Area2016 Rating [10] 2018 Rating [11] 2023 Rating [12]
Are services Safe?GoodGoodRequires improvement
Are services Effective?GoodGoodRequires improvement
Are services CaringGoodGoodGood
Are services ResponsiveGoodGoodGood
Are services Well-ledGoodGoodInadequate
Overall ratingGoodGoodRequires improvement

Services provided

Social media

In 16 August 2024, NEAS suspended its account on social media platform X, claiming the platform was "not consistent with our values" and was failing to "police content". [13]

NEAS is to feature as the host service of the ninth and tenth seasons of the BBC TV series Ambulance , with filming taking place until April 2022. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyne and Wear</span> County of England

Tyne and Wear is a ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Ambulance Service</span> Ambulance service in London

The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS) is an NHS trust responsible for operating ambulances and answering and responding to urgent and emergency medical situations within the London region of England. The service responds to 999 phone calls across the region, and 111 phone calls from certain parts, providing triage and advice to enable an appropriate level of response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South East Coast Ambulance Service</span> Provider of ambulance services for south-eastern England

The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) is the NHS ambulance services trust for south-eastern England, covering Kent, Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex. It also covers a part of north-eastern Hampshire around Aldershot, Farnborough, Fleet and Yateley. The service was made an NHS foundation trust on 1 March 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North West Ambulance Service</span> Ambulance service for North West England

The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) is the ambulance service for North West England. It is one of ten ambulance trusts providing England with Emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Western Ambulance Service</span> UK ambulance service

The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) is the organisation responsible for providing ambulance services for the National Health Service (NHS) across South West England. It serves the council areas of Bath and North East Somerset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Plymouth, Isles of Scilly, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, Torbay and Wiltshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yorkshire Ambulance Service</span> UK public sector provider of ambulance services in Yorkshire, England (2006- )

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) is the NHS ambulance service covering most of Yorkshire in England. It is one of ten NHS Ambulance Trusts providing England with emergency medical services as part of the National Health Service it receives direct government funding for its role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Central Ambulance Service</span> Regional ambulance service in England

The South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) is the ambulance service for the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and most of Hampshire. It is a foundation trust of the National Health Service, and one of ten NHS ambulance trusts in England. As of August 2022, SCAS is currently rated Inadequate by the CQC following multiple failings within the trust. SCAS is the only Ambulance Service in England to have received this rating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East of England Ambulance Service</span> Ambulance service in England

The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) is an NHS trust responsible for providing National Health Service (NHS) ambulance services in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, in the East of England region. These consist of approximately 6.2 million people across an area of 7,500 square miles (19,000 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Midlands Ambulance Service</span> Ambulance trust in England

The West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust (WMAS UNHSFT) is responsible for providing NHS ambulance services within the West Midlands region of England. It is one of ten ambulance trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) is an NHS Foundation Trust based in North East England. It runs two acute hospitals in University Hospital of North Durham and Darlington Memorial Hospital as well as further non-acute centres at Shotley Bridge Hospital, Sedgefield Community Hospital, Richardson Community Hospital, Weardale Community Hospital, Bishop Auckland Hospital and Chester-le-Street Hospital. The Chief Executive is Sue Jacques. The most recent review of the Trust by the Care Quality Commission in 2019 provided an "Overall: Good" rating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom</span>

Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services (NHS) of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is only free to UK residents and a charge may be made to those not entitled to free NHS care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Midlands Ambulance Service</span> UK public sector ambulance service for the East Midlands region of England

The East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS) provides emergency medical services, urgent care and patient transport services for the 4.8 million people within the East Midlands region of the UK - covering Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. It was formed in 1999 by amalgamating several county ambulance services, and in July 2006 was dissolved and reformed under the same name as part of a nationwide reorganisation of ambulance service provision.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust which provides hospital and community health services in North Tyneside and hospital, community health and adult social care services in Northumberland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust</span>

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest mental health and disability Trusts in England employing more than 9,000 staff, serving a population of approximately 1.7 million, providing services across an area totalling 4,800 square miles. It works from over 70 sites across Cumbria, Northumberland, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland. It also has a number of regional and national specialist services.

Out-of-hours services are the arrangements to provide access to healthcare at times when General Practitioner surgeries are closed; in the United Kingdom this is normally between 6.30pm and 8am, at weekends, at Bank Holidays and sometimes if the practice is closed for educational sessions.

Healthcare in Northumberland was the responsibility of the Northumberland, Newcastle Gateshead, and North Tyneside clinical commissioning groups from 2013 to 2022 before being replaced by integrated care systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital</span> Hospital in England

The Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital is a hospital specialising in emergency care for sick and injured patients, opened in 2015 in Cramlington, Northumberland, England by the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare in Durham</span> Healthcare services

Healthcare in Durham, from 2013 to July 2022, was the responsibility of NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield, and Sunderland and South Tyneside clinical commissioning groups. In July 2019 they proposed to merge into two, one covering Durham, and the other covering Tees Valley and including Darlington.

References

  1. "North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20" (PDF). North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  2. "The Northumbria Ambulance Service and the Durham County Ambulance Service National Health Service Trusts (Dissolution) Order 1999". Legislation.gov.uk.
  3. "New ambulance call centre opens in Teesside". www.neas.nhs.uk. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  4. "New year, new base for ambulance crews - North East Ambulance Service - NHS Foundation Trust". www.neas.nhs.uk. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  5. North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust
  6. "Huge fines for NHS trusts as thousands of patients are kept waiting in ambulances". Northern Echo. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  7. "Ambulance trusts demand millions to meet new targets". Health Service Journal. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  8. "Patient harm now 'a continuing theme', says cash-strapped trust". Health Service Journal. 9 December 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  9. "'Get a lift to hospital,' ambulance trust tells patients with suspected heart attacks". Health Service Journal. 4 January 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  10. "North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust: Quality Report". Care Quality Commission. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  11. "Provider: North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust". Care Quality Commission . Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  12. "Provider: North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust". Care Quality Commission . Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  13. "Ambulance service leaves X over 'hate speech'". BBC News . Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  14. "Prime-time documentary series coming to the North East - North East Ambulance Service - NHS Foundation Trust". www.neas.nhs.uk. Retrieved 17 February 2022.