In August 2019, we shared that we had successfully won the national NHS England tender to provide a specialist transport management and call handling service for NHS England Specialised commissioning. The specialist call centre facilitates the transport of critically ill neonates, children and adults. Our compassionate 365 Response team based in Leicester, bridge the gap between clinicians and the emergency transport services. The team take hundreds of calls per month, where they are often required to facilitate multi-party conferencing to aid swift decision making and the safe moving of critically ill patients. Real-time communications across multiple teams, specialists and transport providers, support the delivery of critical care, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
The specialist team in 365 Response works closely with the National ECMO service and both the neonatal and paediatric transport services to ensure safe and efficient transport of patients from their local hospital to specialist care centres. Multiple professionals are connected to ensure there is no delay in service for the patients. This is all underpinned by our bespoke 365 Smart Platform, which provides a full case management function and enables the team to review, audit and record calls and activity. The team can take hundreds of referrals per month, which are dealt with quickly and efficiently.
Speaking last year at the beginning of the project, Gail Faulkner, Lead Nurse & ECMO Coordinator, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust commented: “It has been a pleasure working with the 365 Response team. They have taken care to study our requirements in detail and have spent a lot of time with our staff and clinicians in designing a solution to fit our needs. We have now gone live with the service and I am pleased to report a smooth transition. We are looking forward to working further with 365 Response to realise more of our ideas for improvement and further developments to our service.”
Moving into its second year, Nicky Davey, Matron for the CenTre Neonatal Transport team, commented on the progress that has been made and the impact that having this specialist call centre in place has had on their services.
“365 Response provide a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week call handling and recording service for CenTre Neonatal Transport. This means a doctor who wants to refer a premature or sick new born infant simply calls one telephone number and is connected to the neonatal transport team. This team can then use 365 Response to include other medical or surgical professionals to ensure appropriate advice is given to the referring team. The transport team also uses 365 Response to book ambulances and communicate with each other whilst out and about moving babies. It would be very difficult for our service to operate effectively without the call handling service.”
Nicky continued, “We’ve been working with 365 Response to ensure the call handling service provided meets our service needs. When there have been problems we have found the 365 Response team very responsive and issues have been addressed in a timely manner. Our monthly service meetings provide an opportunity to review the service and address any queries. The ability to listen to recorded calls easily is an added bonus for the CenTre management team.”
In addition to working with ECMO, CenTre and CoMET, the service was expanded to aid the transfer of critically ill adult patients to support the huge impact of COVID-19, where large volumes of new patients were transferred to specialist care centres in April, May and June. The Adult Critical Care service was rapidly setup in just a matter of days to respond to the urgent requirements.
Using the built-in functionality as part of the 365 Smart Platform Case Management, the specialist call handling service was able to facilitate increased activity, moving critically ill patients to specialist hospitals as a result of the Coronavirus crisis.
Plans are now in place to further support demand for specialist care, and the specialist transport call handling service will be used to manage Mental Health transport bookings and specialist IUT needs, on a 24/7 basis. Beginning November 2 2020, the team will be available providing around the clock booking support for Mental Health transport in the East Midlands area.
The highly trained call centre team will facilitate the booking of both pre-planned and ad-hoc requirements for mental health journeys, utilising providers that have been registered in the National Transport Framework and signed off to work in accordance with the Trust’s guidelines.
“365 Response provide a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week call handling and recording service for CenTre Neonatal Transport. This means a doctor who wants to refer a premature or sick new born infant simply calls one telephone number and is connected to the neonatal transport team. This team can then use 365 Response to include other medical or surgical professionals to ensure appropriate advice is given to the referring team. The transport team also uses 365 Response to book ambulances and communicate with each other whilst out and about moving babies. It would be very difficult for our service to operate effectively without the call handling service.”
Nicky Davey,
Matron for the CenTre Neonatal Transport Team
The Specialist Transport Call Handling Team will facilitate calls for the specialist In-Utero pathway, securing the expert transport to support the Clinical Commissioning group, in their plans to make sure dedicated ambulance transfers are undertaken in a prompt manner.
The IUT Pathway is used to ensure the best possible care for babies that are likely to be very premature (27 weeks or less). It is often safer to transfer babies whilst they are still in the uterus, and so the IUT team ensures that these mothers give birth in specialist units, with the best care, equipment and expertise.
Wakefield Office
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Wakefield
West Yorkshire
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