South East Coast Ambulance Service

Baroness Jolly Excerpts

Wednesday 1st November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

My noble friend is quite right to make that point. There has been a big effort to install defibrillators in a number of public settings—they are throughout the Palace of Westminster and many other workplaces. They make a big difference to that immediate response where it is needed.

[Baroness Jolly (LD)]

My Lords, around a million calls a year are made to the South East Coast Ambulance Service and there have been many reports of technical problems with the service. According to a CQC report, the first reports of these malfunctions, which affected the recording of calls, occurred in June 2016. Does the Minister have any information on how many recordings were lost? Have the specific circumstances around any patient’s arrival to NHS premises been lost?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness is right about the technical problems. I understand that two new systems have been put in to address those; one is a computer-aided dispatch system and the other is the moving of the emergency operating centre to new premises. That is part of the special measures investment that has been taking place to improve the quality of service.