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19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 3RR
Deputy Catherine Curtis
Chair, Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel
BY EMAIL
7 October 2022
Dear Chair,
States of Jersey Ambulance Service
Thank you for your letter of 28 September 2022, regarding the States of Jersey Ambulance Service (SoJAS). Please find below responses to the questions raised within that letter. I hope this assists the Panel in their understanding.
- Have there been staff shortages at SoJAS during the last six months?
- If yes, please could you confirm whether this affected any particular role or aspect of the service and, where possible, share any relevant data relating to staffing numbers with the Panel.
I can confirm there have been staff shortages within the period you reference, further details as requested are as follows:
• 1 management role, due to a long-term absence, backfilled with a fixed term contract.
• A number of roles (best shown as shifts as in the table below) in the Frontline Emergency Service, (Ambulance Paramedics and Technicians) due to the reasons highlighted in section ii. Covered through bank staff, agency, officers, overtime, or an alternate skill mix.
• Intermediary crew due to a trial of a new Emergency Care Assistant role, backfilled by bank staff.
The below chart shows the total number of frontline emergency service shifts affected in six months (1st April to 30th September 2022).
- If yes, please could you confirm the reasons for the staff shortages?
There are a range of reasons including
• Long term absence
• Parental Leave (increase in allocation adopted by the GoJ)
• Vacancies
• Sickness
• Annual leave
• HR Process
Query | Total shifts | Dates of Affected Shifts | Notes |
The following Frontline Day Shifts Ran below 6 Staff | 11 | 11 May (5), 16 July (5), 2 August (5), 12 August (5), 18 August (5), 31 August (5), 16 September (4), 18 September (4), 20 September (5), | Additional cover provided by Officers |
The following Frontline Night Shifts Ran below 4 Staff | 1 | 4 September (3) | 4th position covered by Senior Officer |
There was no LAP on the Following LAP D shifts | 3 | 10 August, 12 August, 22 August | Covered by other officers |
There was no LAP on the Following LAP N shifts | 7 | pril, 4 August, 6 August, 12 August, 14 August, 4 September, 5 Septem | b Coveerd by Senior Duty Officer |
There was no LAP on the Following LAP On Call shifts | 11 | 5 August, 7 August, 13 August, 15 August, 5 September | Coveerd by Senior Duty Officer |
D Shifts on these dates had an Intermediary Care Team member as part of the 6 Frontline Staff, replacing either a Paramedic or Technician | 17 | 12 April, 13 April, 23 April, 17 May, 25 May, 6 July, 14 July, 15 July, 29 July, 6 August, 9 August, 11 August, 17 August, 6 September, 15 September, 20 September, 22nd September |
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D Shifts on these dates had an Intermediary Care Team member on duty that took Frontline Staffing ABOVE | 11 | 11 April , 17 May, 25 May, 6 July, 14 July, 15 July, 24 July, 10 August, 27 August, |
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N Shifts on these dates had an Intermediary Care Team member as part of the 4 Frontline Staff, replacing either a Paramedic or Technician | 18 | 4 April, 14 April, 3 May, 4 May, 7 June, 15 June, 16 June, 17 June, 18 June, 6 July, 2 August, 23 August, 26 August, 27 August, 28 August, 4 September, 16 September, 23 Spetember, |
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N Shifts on these dates had an Intermediary Care Team member on duty that took Frontline Staffing ABOVE the required 4 | 4 | 17 July, 4 August, 12 August, 13 August, |
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- Is there a risk of staff shortages at SoJAS in future?
Yes, potentially, though we are recruiting agency Paramedics to cover current absences and will have three in place before the end of the month. Recruitment to vacancies is underway.
Investment is included in the proposed Government Plan 2023 to increase staff and non-staff resources within the Ambulance Service, and if approved by the States Assembly, this will increase the number of staff available on each shift.
Further mitigation is underway in the form of an external Demand and Capacity Review. Ambulance data is currently being analysed to help future planning, enabling us to match capacity to demand. The work is well underway with the final report due in December, and this will help shape future service provision.
- Please could you explain how short staffing impacts the operations of the SoJAS and how these impacts are mitigated?
The impacts can lead to a reduction in the number of crews available at a given time, or changes to the skill mix of the crew. Where a shortage occurs, every effort is made to fill the gap using agency staff, bank staff, overtime, or with officers filling in at times. In addition to operational crews, there is an officer in a response car and a senior officer on call. Though rare, if necessary, we will approach voluntary agencies locally to provide cover. On rare occasions the senior officer on call has provided cover on a shift, handing over the on call to another member of the team. The Fire and Rescue Service also provide additional driver cover and act as emergency first responders when required.
- Please could you provide information about the SoJAS staff overtime' policy and advise how often staff are required to work periods of overtime?
The SoJAS overtime policy falls within the Workforce Modernisation agreement and can consist of time off in lieu, or the appropriate rate of overtime agreed in advance. All overtime is approved through the Operational Management structure. Options to cover shortfalls includes the use of any available qualified office staff, shift swaps if suitable and the use of TOIL/overtime. If we are unable to fill a position, this is risk assessed by operational managers and further mitigation put in place.
The following chart shows overtime in hours, used to cover shift shortages in the last six months across all three areas of the Ambulance Service; Frontline Emergency Service, Intermediary Crew and Patient Transport Services.
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April May June July August Row Labels |
September Grand Total OT 1.0 OT 1.5 OT 2.0 |
| 6.00 33.00 39.00 306.65 52.17 0.50 52.67 256.85
63.67 63.67 68.67 13.00 10.00 23.00 165.83 61.00 52.50 113.50 463.25 |
Grand Total 55.90 120.68 54.92 231.50 32.17 112.00 64.33 208.50 304.25 75.92 380.17 180.13 34.33 214.47 331.20 68.67 399.87 | 6.00 413.67 134.75 554.42 1988.92 |
This shows that the number of shifts in total by Service area per month average.
• Emergency Frontline Service 16.5 shifts per month.
• Intermediary crew 5.3 shifts per month.
• Patient Transport Service 6.3 shifts per month.
• Leading Paramedics 2.7 shifts per month.
Staffing numbers for each of those areas.
• 32 Frontline staff
• 7 Intermediary staff
• 8.6 Patient Transport staff
• 5 Leading Paramedics
- Are you able to share any data about the number and category of calls, and subsequent response times of SoJAS, during the previous six months?
The attached document shows the category of call and response times, these have changed as of the 4th October 2022 following the implementation of the Ambulance Response Programme (ARP).
ARP is aimed at ensuring an ambulance is available for the most critical of calls as often as possible, holding crews back from lower severity incidents which have been deemed through extensive UK studies involving Cumbria University, not to require an ambulance immediately.
Using average response times is a fairer representation of ambulance response performance as it is not possible to get to all calls within a set time, without extensive over resourcing. The change in reporting affects the response categories and the time at which the clock start for recording response times starts. Therefore, this data will not be comparable to future reports. Please note that October data is incomplete.
Yours sincerely
Deputy Helen Miles Minister for Home Affairs
Encl.
Attached document: Ambulance statistics 2022 (updated 3rd October 2022)
AMBULANCE STATISTICS 2022 Updated 03/10/2022 | ||||||||||||||
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | Total | |
Emergency Calls - AS1 |
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Total calls received | 1106 | 966 | 1165 | 1161 | 1260 | 1352 | 1353 | 1373 | 1219 | 106 | 0 | 0 | 11061 | |
Total calls responded to (at leaset one resource mobile) | 921 | 809 | 957 | 931 | 993 | 1043 | 1061 | 1069 | 1030 | 86 | 0 | 0 | 8900 | |
% of Total calls responded to | 83% | 84% | 82% | 80% | 79% | 77% | 78% | 78% | 84% | 81% | 100% | 100% | 80% | |
Total calls attended (at least one resource arrived at scene) | 913 | 804 | 948 | 925 | 984 | 1038 | 1053 | 1058 | 1022 | 86 | 0 | 0 | 8831 | |
% of Total calls attended | 83% | 83% | 81% | 80% | 78% | 77% | 78% | 77% | 84% | 81% | 100% | 100% | 80% | |
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Category RED1 calls received | 38 | 43 | 59 | 50 | 68 | 53 | 75 | 70 | 50 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 509 | |
Category RED1 calls responded to (at leaset one resource mobile) | 38 | 43 | 59 | 46 | 68 | 51 | 74 | 68 | 47 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 497 | |
Category RED1 calls where resource arrived at scene | 38 | 43 | 58 | 45 | 68 | 51 | 73 | 68 | 47 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 494 | |
Category RED1 calls responded to within 8 minutes | 25 | 27 | 39 | 32 | 46 | 33 | 45 | 41 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 315 | |
% of category RED1 calls responded to within 8 mins | 65.79% | 62.79% | 67.24% | 71.11% | 67.65% | 64.71% | 61.64% | 60.29% | 55.32% | 33.33% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 63.77% | |
Average RED1 performance response time (from clock start to first resource on scene) | 00:07:53 | 00:07:21 | 00:07:13 | 00:07:01 | 00:06:37 | 00:07:14 | 00:07:42 | 00:07:23 | 00:09:28 | 00:15:39 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | 00:07:33 | |
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Category RED2 calls received | 555 | 467 | 586 | 560 | 660 | 696 | 666 | 687 | 588 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 5519 | |
Category RED2 calls responded to (at leaset one resource mobile) | 405 | 342 | 407 | 383 | 451 | 467 | 457 | 454 | 452 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 3859 | |
Category RED2 calls where resource arrived at scene | 403 | 341 | 406 | 381 | 450 | 465 | 455 | 452 | 450 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 3844 | |
Category RED2 calls responded to within 8 minutes | 214 | 157 | 242 | 207 | 256 | 268 | 223 | 230 | 241 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 2065 | |
% of category RED2 calls responded to within 8 mins | 53.10% | 46.04% | 59.61% | 54.33% | 56.89% | 57.63% | 49.01% | 50.88% | 53.56% | 65.85% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 53.72% | |
Average RED2 performance response time (from clock start to first resource on scene) | 00:09:24 | 00:10:25 | 00:08:39 | 00:08:54 | 00:08:48 | 00:08:52 | 00:09:22 | 00:09:32 | 00:08:49 | 00:07:07 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | 00:09:09 | |
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Category GREEN1 calls received | 247 | 228 | 255 | 260 | 261 | 281 | 305 | 310 | 286 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 2461 | |
Category GREEN1 calls responded to (at leaset one resource mobile) | 242 | 226 | 246 | 255 | 251 | 263 | 289 | 293 | 274 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 2364 | |
Category GREEN1 calls where resource arrived at scene | 239 | 224 | 242 | 254 | 247 | 262 | 287 | 291 | 273 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 2344 | |
Category GREEN1 calls responded to within 19 minutes | 201 | 190 | 206 | 202 | 214 | 213 | 236 | 226 | 222 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 1934 | |
% of category GREEN1 calls responded to within 19 mins | 84.10% | 84.82% | 85.12% | 79.53% | 86.64% | 81.30% | 82.23% | 77.66% | 81.32% | 96.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 82.51% | |
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Category GREEN2 calls received | 8 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 51 | |
Category GREEN2 calls responded to (at leaset one resource mobile) | 6 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 47 | |
Category GREEN2 calls where resource arrived at scene | 6 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 47 | |
Category GREEN2 calls responded to within 19 minutes | 6 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 43 | |
% of category GREEN2 calls responded to within 19 mins | 100.00% | 100.00% | 85.71% | 50.00% | 100.00% | 88.89% | 100.00% | 80.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 91.49% | |
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Category GREEN3 calls received | 257 | 225 | 258 | 289 | 267 | 312 | 302 | 301 | 288 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 2519 | |
Category GREEN3 calls responded to (at leaset one resource mobile) | 229 | 195 | 238 | 245 | 219 | 253 | 236 | 249 | 251 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 2131 | |
Category GREEN3 calls where resource arrived at scene | 226 | 193 | 235 | 243 | 215 | 251 | 233 | 242 | 246 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 2100 | |
Category GREEN3 calls responded to within 30 minutes | 133 | 144 | 162 | 163 | 144 | 150 | 141 | 151 | 155 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1354 | |
% of category GREEN3 calls responded to within 30 mins | 58.85% | 74.61% | 68.94% | 67.08% | 66.98% | 59.76% | 60.52% | 62.40% | 63.01% | 68.75% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 64.48% | |
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Urgent Calls (AS2) |
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Calls received | 87 | 88 | 104 | 71 | 75 | 77 | 80 | 76 | 85 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 749 | |
Calls responded to (arrived at destination) | 78 | 85 | 94 | 65 | 71 | 76 | 75 | 73 | 82 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 705 | |
Calls with arrival within 15 minutes late of time requested | 45 | 46 | 45 | 34 | 29 | 32 | 33 | 43 | 51 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 362 | |
% of Urgent calls responded to within time limit | 58% | 54% | 48% | 52% | 41% | 42% | 44% | 59% | 62% | 67% | 100% | 100% | 51% | |
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Routine Calls - Including Charters (AS3) |
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Calls received | 252 | 235 | 261 | 246 | 218 | 231 | 217 | 260 | 236 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 2176 | |
Calls responded to | 198 | 182 | 200 | 192 | 193 | 189 | 173 | 209 | 189 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 1739 | |
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Charter Flights - ASF |
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Total charter flights booked | 41 | 26 | 14 | 37 | 33 | 24 | 26 | 34 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 267 | |
Total charter flights taken | 41 | 26 | 14 | 36 | 33 | 23 | 24 | 33 | 31 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 262 | |
Airport opened out of normal hours | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Airport required to remain open for extended hours | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |