Boss in pledge to get failing patient transport firm on track

Last week Coperforma left 33 per cent of renal dialysis patients in hospital waiting rooms for more than an hour, compared with previous provider South East Coast Ambulance (SECAMB) which had only a 12 to16 per cent failure rate for all patients.

But Coperforma’s latest figures show they have made dramatic improvements in picking up patients, achieving an 83 success rate last week for getting renal patients to hospital on time, compared to the Secamb average of 84 per cent for all patients last year.

In an exclusive interview, chief executive Michael Clayton apologised “unreservedly” to Argus readers and Sussex patients, and said: “We expect to be back on track from a contract performance perspective during July.”

He added: “We have committed a huge amount of additional resource and where there are practices on the ground that are needed to be rectified we are determined to rectify those and we’re doing it every day.”

When the NHS ran the service, Secamb were targeted to get patients to hospital in a time window of between 45 minutes before and 15 minutes after the appointment time. Through the course of last year, they achieved that consistently between 81 and 88 per cent of the time.

Coperforma are being asked to aim for the higher target of getting 100 per cent of patients to hospital between 45 minutes before, and the time of, their appointment.

For the last three weeks they have achieved over 80 per cent success for renal patients, but over the first four weeks of the service they only hit that target for half their patients. Their performance for non-renal “inbound” journeys is similar.

But for “outbound” journeys - picking patients up from hospital - Coperforma is still lagging behind their own targets.

It is also still behind Secamb’s figures and the lower “remedial” targets put in place by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCGs) once the scale of problems with the service became apparent.

Coperforma is currently being asked to at least pick up 82 per cent of renal patients within an hour, rather than the 100 per cent envisioned by the contract or the 87 per cent managed last year by Secamb.

But last week Coperforma managed just 67 per cent, and two weeks previously the collection success rate for non-renal patients was only 23 per cent.

Mr Clayton told Wednesday’s meeting of the city council’s health overview and scrutiny committee that the service had seen peaks in demand reaching levels 30 per cent higher than Coperforma had been briefed to expect, and they had to increase staffing accordingly.

A spokesman for Secamb said: “Our service also achieved very high satisfaction rates. For the last financial year across Surrey and Sussex, thorough patient satisfaction surveys were carried out every three months.

“These show 95% satisfaction with the service they received, 98% satisfaction with our staff, and 84% satisfaction with timeliness.”

COMMITMENT TO DELIVER BEST SERVICE FOR PATIENTS

Coperforma Chief Executive Michael Clayton has not given press interviews since his company's disastrous takeover of patient transport services in Sussex from Secamb on April 1.

He spoke exclusively to Argus reporter Joel Adams to claim that current service levels are already better than they were under the NHS provider, and to promise patients his firm will hit its 100 per cent targets by July.

Even today there are patients who have dialysis treatment three times a week who are waiting three hours to be picked up from hospital – why is that?

I’m surprised to hear that. We’ve set up a specialised unit to handle renal dialysis patients, so we’ve got a team that’s giving them a very personal service.

Is there a dedicated phone number?

We have set up a dedicated line for renal patients. Unfortunately that’s been publicised and is being used by other patients so it’s defeated its purpose. We’re trying to give out another line to renal patients and try to keep that more restricted.

What are your recruitment plans for call centre staff, because clearly that’s still a problem.

We’ve authorised a recruitment of an additional 14 staff. Once we knew there was a shortfall obviously we went out to hire additional staff. In addition to that we had already recruited what we called a handover team, to cover us for any shortfalls in TUPE transfer (of staff from Secamb to Coperforma). We didn’t anticipate that we would actually have that much of a shortfall, so clearly that was a bit of a surprise.

You’ve seen demand peak 30 per cent higher than you were briefed to expect, is that correct?

Yes we’ve seen peaks of 30 per cent increase in volume during the day, over and above what we were given during the tender and the mobilisation phase, and that’s caught us by surprise.

So how could you adequately scope your provision and bid accurately?

You can only bid on the data that you’re given so we’re looking forward to the results of the investigation because we are still not clear where that data actually came from. The information we were given, we resourced up for. We’ve responded to the increased patient activity by putting on additional shifts.

When do you anticipate being off the Remedial Action Plan and up achieving the original objectives?

We expect to be back on track from a contract performance perspective during July.

During July you think you’ll be up at or around those extremely high targets?

Indeed.

What are you doing to achieve that?

Basically a huge investment in additional staff, and actually to train those staff and that takes a little time but we started that on the first of April.

Do you regret not being able to start that in advance?

Absolutely. We approached the various organisations involved and offered to backfill their staffing. We said if you can give us those staff that are transferring over to us, we will pay for temporary staff for your additional costs to cover those staff not being available, but unfortunately that wasn’t available.

What would you say to our readers?

We are absolutely determined to get the service levels that we deliver elsewhere, to the patients in Sussex. I would say we have committed a huge amount of additional resource and where there are practices on the ground that are needing to be rectified we are determined to rectify those and we’re doing it every day.

That statement didn’t include an apology, which you’ve issued previously.

You can take that as read really, I have apologised unreservedly and I still do.

Should patients trust that you’re going to get there?

I believe they should because actually we’re already better than the previous experience that they were having and we’ve got the data to support that. And I look forward to the report being published because it’ll bring this out into the open.

Resolving this is going to cost money off Coperforma’s bottom line.

It’s going to come out of Coperforma’s board investment so it doesn’t come off the bottom line, it becomes a loan from our board.

Will you be taking a dividend in this financial year?

I haven’t taken a dividend since the company started.

Do you anticipate the board being out of pocket?

No, I believe we will deliver the service we committed to, to the board. At this stage what’s most important is delivering the best service for the patients.

AFTER SEVEN WEEKS, WHY IS COPERFORMA STILL FAILING ME?

Roger Boniface

AS COPERFORMA chief executive Michael Clayton answered the questions of the city council’s health scrutiny committee on Wednesday, Roger Boniface was on a dialysis machine at the Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton.

Roger should already have been at home in Shoreham by the time the agenda moved on to patient transport matters at 6pm.

But the 66-year-old still had an hour of tiring blood treatment to undergo because, 55 days after Coperforma took over the service, its drivers had arrived almost three hours late to pick him up, causing everything else in the day to run late.

Roger receives three four-hour dialysis treatments per week, which start at around 12.30pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He said that under previous provider Secamb, he was picked up and collected on time almost all of the time.

This is rarely the case now. On Wednesday, drivers who should have picked him up from Shoreham at 11.30am didn’t arrive until 2.15pm. So his treatment didn’t start until 3.15pm was delayed and he didn’t get home until after 8pm.

On Monday, he wasn’t picked up until after 1pm. Then drivers who were due to collect him from the hospital at 6pm didn’t arrive until 8.20pm.

The previous Friday, May 20, he was picked up on time but was kept waiting for over four hours after his lengthy treatment was finished, when no collection crew turned up until after 10pm.

Roger said: “What I want to ask Coperforma is why they can’t do these predictable, scheduled journeys after seven weeks in charge? Why are they still failing me?”

His wife Eileen said: “Roger gets uncomfortable when he has to stay in his wheelchair for all that time, and he can’t stand up and move around.

“Dialysis wipes you out anyway and then when he comes in he’s too tired to eat and that’s not good for his blood pressure or his blood sugar. It’s taking a toll on his health because he’s worn out.”

Edwin Walker, 75, waited more than five hours to be picked up after a half-hour ultrasound on his knee last Friday, so in the end he had to be taken home by St John Ambulance staff after no Coperforma transport arrived.

Edwin, from Whitehawk, was let down twice earlier this month by Coperforma. He said: “The ward sister called them four times but she just couldn’t get through.”

He said: “I’ve had to miss three appointments altogether and it’s put my knee replacement operation back another month.”