The London Ambulance Service has been rated “good” overall by the care quality watchdog.
Care Quality Commission inspectors inspected the urgent and emergency care, and the emergency operations centres, after receiving intelligence over “safety concerns”.
But in a statement announced on (Friday, January 3, the commission said the overall rating has not been downgraded.
Alongside some examples of outstanding care, inspectors found:
- There were enough frontline staff to care for patients
- Staff had training in the key skills needed
- Most staff knew how to protect patients from abuse and managed their safety well
- Staff assessed risk to patients, acted on them and kept good records of treatment and care provided.
- Information was shared where required in a safe manner with other health agencies.
- Patients were treated with compassion and kindness, and with dignity and respect.
- Staff felt respected, supported and valued.
However, areas where it has been ordered to improve include making sure medicines are stored and identifiable, with batch numbers and expiry dates clearly visible.
Vehicles and access to stations need to be secured, and equipment restocking and the process for checking expiry dates need to be improved.
Professor Ted Baker, England’s chief inspector of Hospitals, said: “The London Ambulance Service has again been rated good overall.
“It has to cope with a number of additional pressures working in the capital.
“Frontline staff deserve fulsome praise for the way they cope with terrorist incidents like the recent London Bridge attack.
“The trust also trained staff well, so they had the training in the key skills needed for their roles.”