North East Ambulance Service: experiences in Gateshead and Newcastle

Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle engaged with local residents to understand their experiences and opinions of the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS). Following the recent attention around NEAS’ services and processes, as well as the latest industrial action, they wanted to understand public perceptions of the service. Healthwatch were particularly interested in overall levels of trust amongst the public towards the service.  They undertook a survey to which 37 people responded.

Overall, feedback was largely positive. Almost two-thirds of respondents shared positive comments when asked about their general opinion of the North East Ambulance Service. Seven respondents shared comments of a neutral nature and five respondents provided negative feedback.

Positive feedback highlighted the quality of the service provided and the professional, caring nature of the ambulance staff that they had encountered.

Many felt that the service was underfunded and staff levels were insufficient for the need. Respondents felt that the ambulance staff who were in-post were overworked and undervalued.

n terms of definitions of trust, several common themes were identified and included “Reliability, Availability, and Responsiveness”, “Delivering a High Standard of Care”, “Integrity and the Alignment of Words & Actions”, and ”Patients’ Safety”.  The analysis suggested that “Reliability, Availability, and Responsiveness” and “Integrity and the Alignment of Words & Actions” required the most development. Over half of respondents who identified these elements of trust selected “Somewhat” when asked if NEAS met the definition.

Little over half felt that an ambulance would get to them in an appropriate amount of time, when they were specifically asked about the timeliness of an ambulance in an emergency situation.

The report contains five recommendations about engagement with the public, awareness raising and communicating with staff.