A PATIENT died following a collapse on an private ambulance, a watchdog probe has revealed.

Despite this, the service managers have not commissioned a review into how staff manage “deteriorating patients” – the Care Quality Commission said.

Since Akcess Medical was registered with the health watchdog in 2015, there have been four patient falls and four occasions where patients collapsed or fainted, inspectors found. One patient subsequently died.

In its inspection report, the CQC said: “These did not prompt any analysis or review of the circumstances which may require change in practice, guidance or staff training in regard to managing deteriorating patients.

“The service did not manage safety incidents well and missed opportunities to use these events to mitigate risk and improve safety.”

The CQC does not rate ambulance services in the same way as it does hospitals and GP surgeries.

But following its visit to Akcess’s Swindon headquarters in January, it identified more than a dozen areas where improvements were needed.

Inspectors said that governance processes were weak and “did not provide assurance of quality and safety”.

They also claimed:

:: There was no guidance for staff to follow if the health of a patient in their care deteriorated and staff employment records were poorly organised, the CQC found,

:: There was no audit system to provide assurance that infection risks were effectively managed. Five out of 16 staff had not completed “mandatory” training in infection control.

:: Akcess could provide “no evidence” a defibrillator had been checked by electrical safety.

The CQC told the service it was failing to meet national regulations, warning that there was no “effective governance and quality assurance framework”.

However, the watchdog did acknowledge that staff felt well supported and provided “compassionate care and respected patients’ dignity”.

Responding to the report, Mark Kennedy, managing director of Akcess Medical, said: “We embraced our first inspection and took it at as a learning experience as a company.

“We’re continuing to work closely with the CQC to make all of the necessary improvements.

“We’re proud of our staff and we received tremendous feedback about our service. We have already made improvements to our systems and implemented additional training for all of our staff.”