Dear J Lowe

Thank you for your email dated 13th January 2014 where you requested information regarding the East of England Ambulance Service.

Your request will be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and we will respond to you within twenty working days. Your request has been allocated the following reference: F16785 and I would be grateful if you could quote this reference in any future correspondence with the Trust.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

show quoted sections

Dear J Lowe

 

Further to your email dated 13th January 2014, please find the Trust's
response below.

 

Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officer (HALO)

The Trust is committed to investigating and implementing new methods to
improve our response times to our patients. 

 

The role of the HALO is to work with ambulance crews and hospital staff in
order to reduce the time that an ambulance spends at A&E. By cutting down
handover times, our crews are freed up more quickly and available sooner
for their next patient rather than waiting around at a hospital. Having
more staff dedicated to helping improve patient handover times at hospital
has proved, following a trial period, to be a successful way of doing
this. These HALOs work at acute hospital trusts to prevent lengthy delays
when the ambulance has reached A&E.

 

Last April a penalty system was introduced for all ambulance trusts for
unnecessarily long handover times. Ambulance services are fined £20 every
time a crew takes longer than 30 minutes to be ready to respond to their
next emergency, after handing the patient over to hospital staff. The fine
increases to £100 if the time goes to more than 60 minutes. Hospital
trusts have also had fines introduced for delays in taking the patient
from ambulance crews.

 

In October, following a full time HALO being implemented at the Norfolk
and Norwich Hospital, fines for handover delays at the hospital fell to
just over £8,000, and they continued to decrease, with one week at the end
of 2013 seeing just eight fines.  Such a reduction gives the Trust more
money to spend improving care for our patients.

The HALOs also help to improve the relationships with the A&E departments,
ensuring that everything runs smoothly during busy periods.

How many of these roles have been created?

The original number of roles created in total was 57.31 WTE with 39.2 at
Band 5 and 18.11 at Band 7, Senior HALO Manager. The Band 5 roles are
non-clinical and do not require any form of clinical qualification, Band 7
Senior HALOs are required to be HCPC registered paramedics.

 

A business case was put together to obtain funding for these roles from
CCGs, some CCGs took this up and we received funding from 3 areas. The
rest of the funding for these roles has come from additional winter
funding monies which the Trust received following NHS England releasing
£15m split across all Ambulance Trusts. These roles will only be in place
until 31 March 2014 and will not be continued unless additional funding,
outside the Trust budget, is secured.

 

Which hospitals these HALOs work at?

Basildon

Bedford General

Broomfield

Colchester General

Ipswich

James Paget

Lister

Luton & Dunstable

Norfolk and Norwich

Princess Alexandra Harlow

Queen Elizabeth Kings Lynn

Southend

Watford General

West Suffolk Hospital

 

What pay banding these roles attract e.g. Band 7 and the salary range for
that band?

All non- clinical posts are agenda for change Band 5 - £21,388 to £27,901

All clinical posts are agenda for change Band 7 - £30,764 to £40,558

 

How many of these HALOs possess qualifications that would mean they could
actually work on an ambulance rather than being at a hospital?

At present we have 5 clinicians in Senior HALO roles plus 3 non-practicing
clinicians. The rest have no clinical qualifications.  By recruiting
non-clinical staff we are freeing up frontline staff who have been doing
the HALO roles in the interim; they can go back to their original
ambulance crew role, giving us more crews who can respond to emergencies. 

 

I am obliged to advise you that if you are dissatisfied with the Trust’s
response to your request you have a right to complain to the Trust and
should set out your concerns to the Freedom of Information Officer, EEAST,
Hospital Approach, Broomfield, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 7WS or by email to
[1][East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust request email]. If you remain dissatisfied following this, you have
a right under Section 50 of the FOIA to seek a determination from the
Information Commissioner on whether the Act has been properly applied by
the Trust. For more information, please see [2]www.ico.gov.uk.

 

The Trust is always looking at ways to improve our responses to Freedom of
Information requests. If you wish to provide feedback to the Trust on how
we have dealt with your request, please follow this link to complete a
short survey: [3]http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PLJZ6C9

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further
information.

 

Kind regards

 

FoI Officer

East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

 

show quoted sections