January 12, 2016 12.44 pm This story is over 97 months old

Ambulance service receives record number of compliments

Positive progress: More people than ever before have put pen to paper to say ‘thank you’ to the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

More people than ever before have put pen to paper to say ‘thank you’ to the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

The patient experience team says that they have received a record number of compliments in the financial year from April 2015.

While the trust noted a number of complaints from patients, compliments far outweighed them.

Between April and June 2015 (the first quarter), EMAS received 268 compliments compared to 13 complaints. This equates to a ratio of 20 compliments for every complaint (20:1), something never before seen at the trust.

In the second quarter of the year (July, August September), the number of compliments rose again to 302 compared to 34 complaints.

Clare Wade, Patient Safety & Experience Manager, said: “To receive so many compliments is a real credit to the hard work of crews who are at the frontline of patient care.

“However, we do take every complaint very seriously and aim to learn everything we can in order to improve our services.

“When people feel that they’ve received excellent care that has gone above and beyond what they expected, they write in to say ‘thank you’ and we really appreciate this.

“People are often most appreciative of our staff being courteous, supportive and showing empathy.”

Compliments were for all of the EMAS services; 999 emergency calls, patient transport and call handlers.

Words frequently used to praise staff included ‘professional’, ‘excellent’, ‘caring’, ‘kind’ and ‘grateful’.

EMAS received 1083 compliments between April 2014 and March 2015, compared with 464 compliments in 2013/14 – amounting to an increase of 133.4%.

Comparing number of compliments for the first two quarters of 2015/16 (570) with the same period in 2014/15 (476) gives an increase of 19.7%.

Patients and members of the public are encouraged by the trust to give both good and bad feedback about the care they received from the ambulance service.

They can do that via the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) – email: [email protected] or call at local rate on 0333 012 4216