October 2012 saw the completion of the first phase of our Patient Transport Service Improvement Project. Over the course of the year we have introduced a new direct patient booking line across Scotland, we have invested in our staff ensuring they have computer access in all our vehicles and we have begun improving our booking systems for patients and staff.

If you have used the Patient Transport Service since April this year then please complete the online survey here. This feedback is the start of influencing the work we will develop for our second phase of improvement to the Service from 2012-2015.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government published its Route Map to 2020, setting out how NHSScotland would implement its 2020 Vision that “everyone would be able to live longer, healthier lives at home, or as close to home, as possible”. ‘The Scottish Governments vision is that by 2020 everyone is able to live longer healthier lives at home, or in a homely setting. We will have a healthcare system where we have integrated health and social care, a focus on prevention, anticipation and supported self management. When hospital treatment is required, and cannot be provided in a community setting, day case treatment will be the norm. Whatever the setting, care will be provided to the highest standards of quality and safety, with the person at the centre of all decisions. There will be a focus on ensuring that people get back into their home or community environment as soon as appropriate, with minimal risk of
re admission.’

In pursuit of the national quality ambitions for safe, effective and person-centred care, the Scottish Ambulance Service aims to continue to develop our service to:

• Improve access to healthcare

• Support the shift in the balance of care by taking more care to the patient

• Enhance our clinical skills as a key and integral partner within primary and secondary care teams

• Build and strengthen community resilience

• Expand our diagnostic capability and use of technology to improve patient care and

• Develop a more flexible, responsive and integrated scheduled Patient Transport Service.

This discussion document sets out the Scottish Ambulance Service’s proposed contribution to the Route Map moving towards delivery of the 2020 Vision, and builds on our 2010 – 2015 strategy “Working Together for Better Patient Care”.

Click to download the document.

Survey - Towards 2020

All NHS Boards in Scotland now have to produce an annual report for Feedback, Comments, Concerns and Complaints. The annual reports should include sufficient information to allow Boards to self-assess against the Participation Standard levels and enable the Scottish Health Council’s review of these levels, with a particular emphasis on how people have been involved in the work of the NHS Board, e.g. in looking at the themes from complaints and feedback and making improvements through:

• analysis of complaints and feedback reports and information gathered from the patient feedback process

• how the involvement of patients and the public has informed the improvement work around feedback and complaints

• reporting on governance arrangements relating to feedback and complaints, including accountability, clear schemes of delegation and incorporation of complaints and feedback data for improvement.

We would welcome your feedback on the draft version of our annual report. We have tried to make this straightforward, by asking you to read the draft report, then complete a short feedback form.

Your feedback will help us produce the final version of the report, which will be submitted to the Scottish Government on 30 June 2015.

Read the draft Annual Report

We would welcome your feedback on the Scottish Ambulance Service draft equality outcomes, which you can read on our website.

The Scottish Ambulance Service developed and published equality outcomes for the first time in 2013. Four years on we have reviewed our outcomes and are developing new ones to build on the work we have done to take our equalities work forward.

A short questionnaire for feedback can be found at
http://www.formwize.com/run/survey3.cfm?idx=505d0400010b0a
but we also welcome your general comments.