PAC calls for comparable ambulance data

The Commons’ Public Accounts Committee has called for more standardised data on the performance of ambulance services in a report published today.

In a report into its hearing on the National Audit Office’s ‘Transforming NHS Ambulance Services’ inquiry, it says performance information is not always comparable. 

This makes it difficult to benchmark services and identify the scope for efficiency improvements.

“The Department [of Health] should set standard definitions for the data to be measured by each ambulance service to enable benchmarking, and certify the quality of data-generating systems,” it says.

However, the committee has been told that a new website is being used that plots the performance of ambulance services against clinical quality indicators that can be used for comparison.

The PAC’s 11-page report also highlights how A&E dashboards showing ambulance arrivals is improving efficiency in some areas.

“Ambulance services have, in conjunction with many A&E departments, set up screens which show when ambulances are due to arrive at hospital so that the hospitals can be prepared for them.

"Ambulance services told us that this is helping to reduce turnaround times,” the report says.

Overall, though, the committee argues that emergency services need to collaborate more and more effectively in order to improve efficiency, and make savings.

During the committee’s hearing on the NAO’s report, which was published in June, the national director of ambulance services, Peter Bradley, said costs could be taken out of the system if 999 services were able to pass callers onto other services, such as triage nurses.

The NAO’s report praised the use of NHS Pathways software by some healthcare communities, and said this was enabling services to deal with more calls over the phone.

However, the PAC’s report fails to make reference to this in its recommendations; even though the software is being used by the NHS 111 pilots.

The committee says there is a need for clarification about who will be responsible for commissioning ambulance services under the NHS reforms, and that there should be a reassessment of how response time targets are being used to improve performance.

It said national targets had increased the speed at which calls were answered, but had also led to inefficiencies; in some cases, more than one ambulance was sent to a job to ensure at least one arrived within the response time target.