A healthcare service providing patient transport for adults and children in London is caring, effective, responsive, and has “outstanding” leadership, an inspection report published today said.

A report written by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), England’s independent health and adult social care regulator, about G4S’s Patient Transport Service for hospitals in Barking, Havering, Redbridge and London has found kind, compassionate staff who effectively managed those in their care. 

Six inspectors comprehensively inspected the service’s facilities and operations over two days in late January, 2020. They ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? 

 

The answer to all five questions for G4S’s services, according to the report, was yes. 

 

“Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions,” inspectors wrote. “They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.”

 

The service “engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually”.

 

Inspectors found staff  were “proud of the organisation as a place to work and spoke highly of the culture”. Staff were “well-trained and understood how to protect patients.” 

 

All elements of the service were deemed “Good”, with the exception of whether it was well-led, which was given a score of “Outstanding”. Of the 90 providers inspected since September 2018, G4S Patient Transport Services was the only private provider to rate Outstanding in the ‘well-led’ category. 

 

“We saw that all leaders had a shared purpose and strove to deliver and motivate staff to succeed, whilst aiming to provide high performance and quality patient care.”

Russell Hobbs, Managing Director of G4S Patient Transport Services, said the report highlighted the positive workplace culture and high level of skills and complimentary attributes his team had developed. 

“Our team works extremely hard to provide caring, friendly and safe service for those who need it, and I am pleased their work has been praised in this report,” he said.

“A quality service does not happen overnight. What has been identified in this report is the result of sustained improvements that have made our patient transport business which is a vital part of the public health system in the UK.”

G4S’s Patient Transport Service for these contracts is based in Chelmsford, Essex, and carries out about 300,000 journeys each year. The service transports patients to and from Barking, Havering and Redbridge, QE and Lewisham, University College Hospitals including the Macmillan cancer centre and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. G4S also have responsibility for patient transport services for the whole of Kent. 

The CQC is an independent regulator responsible for health and adult social care services in England.