The ambulance trust had consistently failed to deliver the national standards of patient response times. It consistently placed 10th out of 10 nationally on both C1 and on C2 responses
Cultural challenges including poor accountability, lack of aligned direction and siloed working and persistently low levels of ambition to improve.
Significant and worsening staffing gaps, representing a large risk at the time of COVID-19
Daily operational discipline: introduced new daily battle rhythm and role of delivery commander to focus teams on response times
Workforce improvement: Implemented a robust development framework to attract new staff plus develop and upskill existing staff
Top down programme management: Established a transformation cell to bring together improvement plans of all business areas, agreed stretch targets and supported reporting and delivery
Bolstered resources including 25% increase in clinical, on the ground, hours within 2 months
Reduced response times including decreasing Category 1 response times by ~2 minutes (20%) and decreasing Category 2 by >5 minutes (>20%). National ranking for C1 improved from 10th to 4th
Achieved an important cultural shift in the level of ambition. Notably the narrative has changed and teams are using ambitious, performance focused terminology: stretch targets, daily battle rhythm and piloting new actions
Improved staff morale and satisfaction with the Trust response to COVID pressures
