Friday 15th April 2016 – 4.10pm – Jamie Arrowsmith.
West Midlands Ambulance Service is celebrating on two fronts after new figures revealed that the number of compliments received by the Trust rose in 2015-16 compared to the previous 12 months, whilst the number of complaints fell by 9%.
Across the course of the last year, the Trust received 1,279 contacts of appreciation, up 4% from the 1,229 received in 2014-15. Members of the public used various methods of engagement to pass on their praise including letters, emails, tweets and Facebook posts.
Pleasingly, the number of complaints and concerns fell from 393 in 2014-15 to 358 this time around.
The figures equate to one in every 4487 patients making a formal complaint whilst one in 1256 choose to say thank you for the service they have received.
Trust Chairman, Sir Graham Meldrum, said: “I am delighted to see that the figures are continuing to go the right way and that more and more people are praising the work that we do.
“To see the number of complaints fall by 10% is also an excellent result and we will continue to work hard in order to ensure that number falls further.
“When you consider that we receive almost 3,000 emergency calls and hundreds of non-emergency patient transport service (PTS) calls each day, we should all be very proud as to how few complaints we get.”
Trust Chief Executive Anthony Marsh added: “These numbers are a fantastic result and are just reward for the excellent work of our hard working staff.
“It demonstrates we are providing a very high level of patient care to people in their hour of need.
“Congratulations to all of our staff who work incredibly hard to make these results possible whilst maintaining the highest level of patient care.”
Head of Patient Experience, Marie Tideswell, said: “As a Trust, we know the value of listening to patient feedback. While we believe we have a high level of patient care, we are far from complacent and know that we can always learn more and make further improvements.”
Ends
This is a complaint. 4 weeks ago yesterday I called my GP who said I was having a heart attack and to ring 999. Your receptionist told me I had to speak to a paramedic, who said I was not having an attack and that I should go back to my Doctor or get myself to hospital. Doctor rang for n ambulance. It transpired that I was having a serious heart attack. The following day I was sent from Telford to Stoke and there I had a triple bypass.
Would have been able to drive? Would I of crashed? Killed myself and others.
I am having nightmares over the actions of the service. I am on a slow physical recovery but my mental state is not good. I have delayed writing to you in in hope that the situation would improve. Not only is it me who have these concerns.
I hope that you would look into this situation and report back to me.
Good afternoon Richard. We have passed this onto our complaints team who will be in touch shortly.
We wish to complement Freya Morris and Jacob Thompson on their excellent service when my husband fell on June 8th.They had quite a long walk to reach us but there were no complaints and they were very caring and professional.
Hi Christine, thanks for your kind message. We have forwarded your message to our compliments team who will be sure to pass your message onto the staff. All the best.
I think some off your ambulance response teams need to learn to have some respect when dealing with patents, we have just come down the risingbrook road to be meet with one off you ambulance teams giving cpr to a patent with the doors wide open this is something I have never seen before and felt quite saddened for the family stood in the door way also! Quite disrespectful I understand that sometimes these situations can not be helped but feel on this occasion some privacy could have been met!
Hi Katrina, I’m sorry you felt that way. Given the crew were doing CPR on a patient not breathing I’m sure they simply didn’t have the time to close the door…..privacy is always a priory for our staff but so is trying to save a life.
abouslty disgusting that the ambulance staff that picked my up for home to take to Russell’s hall hospital was refused to take me there my partner had to pick me up out of ambulance an take me to AnE of Russell’s hall even thou ambulance was down road from there it was where I had a operation 3 days before my car should of carried on there
Hi Natalie, sorry to hear you were unhappy with the service provided by us. We’d be happy to look into your complaint further. If you could email pals@wmas.nhs.uk or telephone 01384 246370 to discuss it further that would be great. thank you