Statistics relating to emergency and maternity patients in the Grantham hospital area

The request was refused by East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

charmaine morgan

Dear East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust,

Please provide details of the following in relation to Grantham Hospital emergency (including stroke victims) and maternity response calls for the period 1 April 2012 - 1 April 2015.

Where possible please provide total annual figures and also broken down monthly figures for each question:-

a. the number of callouts for EMAS ambulances in the last year for the area within a 12 mile radius of Grantham Hospital.

b. what was the average response time

c. Which hospital A&E units were patients taken to

d. How may patients were recorded as Death in Transit

e. How many patients were recorded as Dead on Arrival

f. How many women in labour were transported from the area within a 12 mile radius of Grantham Hospital.

g. How many babies were born in transit

h. How many babies died in transit

i. How many mothers died in transit

j. what rules are used by EMAS Ambulance crews to decide whether or not a patient will be received at Grantham Hospital A&E.

K. when EMAS crews arrived at Grantham, Boston, Lincoln hospitals with patients from the Grantham area what was the minimum and maximum patient transfer time

l. How many patients refused transfer from the Grantham area to another hospital

m. how many stroke victims from the Grantham area within a 12 mile radius of Grantham Hospital were transferred to another hospital

n. for stroke victims what was the average journey time

o. for stroke victims what was the average transfer time for patient to accepted by hospital staff.

p. how many EMAS ambulances cover the region at any given time

q. how many EMAS ambulances have paramedic crews

r. in addition to Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service what other First Responder teams do EMAS work with in Lincolnshire?

Yours faithfully,

Charmaine

Lincolnshire County Councillor Charmaine Morgan
Chair SOS Grantham Hospital
Tel 01476 574748

Williams Matthew, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust

4 Attachments

Ref: FOI/15/006

 

8 April 2015

 

Dear Ms Morgan

 

Thank you for your e-mail dated 8 April 2015 requesting statistics
relating to emergency and maternity patients in the Grantham hospital
area.

 

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be answered within 20 working days.

 

If you have any queries about this request please do not hesitate to
contact me. 

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Matthew Williams

 

[1]Description: hello my name is [3]Description: Description:    
Description: Description:
Matthew Williams cid:image001.png@01CF367A.50F55880
Records Manager
 
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
1 Horizon Place                               
Mellors Way
Nottingham  
NG8 6PY
Telephone: 0115 8845125
 
[mobile number]
[2]Description: Description: Description:
Description: Email:
cid:image002.png@01CF367A.50F55880@EMASNHSTRUST [4][email address]

[5]www.emas.nhs.uk

 

 

[6]cid:image003.png@01D0160F.78E8AF20

 

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Williams Matthew, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust

6 Attachments

Ref: FOI/15/006

 

21 May 2015

 

Dear Ms Morgan

 

We are writing further to your e-mail dated 8 April 2015 requesting
statistics relating to emergency and maternity patients in the Grantham
area.  Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

 

Unfortunately we are not able to respond to the majority of your
questions, and this is explained further in our reply below. We appreciate
that your questions have been asked to give you a better understanding of
the way we work in the area. As such, we would like to offer you the
opportunity to visit our Emergency Operations Centre (control) based at
Cross O’Cliff Court, Lincoln. The visit would allow you to observe how
calls are received, categorised and responded to. The Mayor of Grantham
spent several hours with us in March and before leaving expressed how
useful the time had been and that it had given him a much better
understanding of the Ambulance Service and how we work alongside other
health and blue-light services.  If you would like to take up this
opportunity, please contact Clare Smith on 01522 832645 or
[1][email address].

 

The questions asked and our responses are as follows:

 

a.     The number of callouts for EMAS ambulances in the last year for the
area within a 12 mile radius of Grantham Hospital.  To provide you with
the information on the scale that you have requested, we would need to
assess every single incident that we attended in the whole of the East
Midlands Area over the last year (over 500,000 incidents) to determine
whether or not they were within 12 miles of Grantham Hospital.  This would
entail the retrieval and analysis of a substantial amount of data. 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for public
authorities to decline requests for information where the cost of dealing
with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for NHS Trusts is
£450.00. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5
working days in determining whether the Trust holds the information,
locating, retrieving and extracting the information.  We estimate that it
would take us well in excess of 2.5 working days to determine appropriate
material and locate, retrieve and extract the information in reference to
your request. Therefore, your request will not be processed further.

 

b.    What was the average response time – The answer provided to question
A above applies.

 

c.     Which hospital A&E units were patients taken to – The answer
provided to question A above applies.

 

d.    How many patients were recorded as Death in Transit – EMAS does not
record ‘death in transit’.  A crew may diagnose death on scene, but once
transportation to hospital has commenced for a patient undergoing
resuscitation, then resuscitation would continue until stopped by hospital
clinician.

 

e.     How many patients were recorded as Dead on Arrival – Again, EMAS
does not record ‘dead on arrival’.

 

f.     How many women in labour were transported from the area within a 12
mile radius of Grantham Hospital.  The answer provided to question A above
applies.

 

g.    How many babies were born in transit – The answer provided to
question A above applies.

 

h.     How many babies died in transit – The answer provided to question A
above applies.

 

i.      How many mothers died in transit – The answer provided to question
A above applies.

 

j.      What rules are used by EMAS Ambulance crews to decide whether or
not a patient will be received at Grantham Hospital A&E.  EMAS works to an
admission protocol produced by the hospital. A copy of the current
document is attached.

 

k.     When EMAS crews arrived at Grantham, Boston, Lincoln hospitals with
patients from the Grantham area what was the minimum and maximum patient
transfer time – The answer provided to question A above applies.

 

l.      How many patients refused transfer from the Grantham area to
another hospital – The answer provided to question A above applies.

 

m.   How many stroke victims from the Grantham area within a 12 mile
radius of Grantham Hospital were transferred to another hospital – The
answer provided to question A above applies.

 

n.     For stroke victims what was the average journey time – The answer
provided to question A above applies.

 

o.    For stroke victims what was the average transfer time for patient to
accepted by hospital staff?  The answer provided to question A above
applies.

 

p.    How many EMAS ambulances cover the region at any given time –  We do
not operate a fixed resource to cover the Grantham area i.e. we respond to
calls on a dynamic basis and any vehicle from any location may respond to
calls in the Grantham area. Therefore, the number of vehicles covering the
area (or responding to call in the vicinity) varies by the hour. EMAS
roster out on an average day 14 ‘shifts’ from the Grantham station. Most
shifts start in the morning and normally run for between eight to twelve
hours. In addition, a further 16 shifts are rostered to commence after
midday (usually early evening) to ensure appropriate cover over a 24 hour
period. The shifts can either be a conventional ambulance or a solo
responder.

 

q.    How many EMAS ambulances have paramedic crews – Ambulances that
respond to 999 calls are normally rostered to contain a person of
paramedic status (or above) and someone of Technician or Emergency Care
Assistant status.

 

r.      In addition to Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service what other First
Responder teams do EMAS work with in Lincolnshire?  In Lincolnshire we
have several local Community First Responder teams who assist us along
with the support provided by the Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary
Emergency Service (LIVES).

 

Yours sincerely

 

Matthew Williams

 

Note

 

We’re interested in your views on how we deal with Freedom of Information
requests and would welcome your feedback.  Please take a few moments to
complete our short questionnaire – available here at:
[2]http://www.emas.nhs.uk/freedom-of-inform....

 

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review.  Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to:

 

Matthew Williams, Records Manager, Information Governance and Compliance
Team, East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Trust Headquarters, 1
Horizon Place, Mellors Way, Nottingham Business Park, Nottingham NG8 6PY.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

 

[3]Description: hello my name is [5]Description: Description:    
Description: Description:
Matthew Williams cid:image001.png@01CF367A.50F55880
Records Manager
 
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
1 Horizon Place                               
Mellors Way
Nottingham  
NG8 6PY
Telephone: 0115 8845125
 
[mobile number]
[4]Description: Description: Description:
Description: Email:
cid:image002.png@01CF367A.50F55880@EMASNHSTRUST [6][email address]

[7]www.emas.nhs.uk

 

 

[8]cid:image003.png@01D0160F.78E8AF20

 

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