South West London Clinical Commissioning Group has brought in the London Ambulance Service Trust as a “resilience partner” for the service supplied by Vocare, according to its board papers for October 2021. The commissioners issued a contract performance notice to its Vocare, its 111 provider, that describe key aspects of the service’s performance as “well below acceptable levels”.
The board papers also state that: “Weekly performance management meetings are being held [and] a joint remedial action plan including financial sanctions is being drafted.”
The volume of calls received by the 111 service in August was around 31 per cent above contracted activity. The number of calls answered within one minute was below one-third, against a target of 95 per cent, while the number of abandoned calls was 15 per cent. The latter figure was a small improvement on the previous month, but still well above the five per cent target. The board papers described the performances as “still well below acceptable levels”.
To “mitigate Vocare’s performance”, the papers said a proportion of the service’s activity was transferred to LAS in early September, with a further shift due to take place on 18 October.
Full story in The HSJ, 6 October 2021
