Progress Lifeline: Reflecting after the TSA conference and our next steps moving forward

At the end of March, we were thrilled to be announced as winners of the ITEC Partnership in TEC award at the TSA 2022 conference, for our strategic partnership with North West Ambulance Service.

This partnership creates an improved service for patients who fall with minor or no injuries and are triaged to us from the ambulance service. It was developed in conjunction with our long-standing delivery of TECS services to Lancashire County Council. Our team of Emergency Home Responders use specialist lifting equipment and can attend to a patient who has fallen and is unable to get back on their feet. Our average response time to attend a patient’s home is just 22 minutes, whereas they could be waiting several hours for a non-emergency ambulance to assist with lifting.

We take, on average, around 130 referrals a month directly from the North West Ambulance Service.?Due to our responders being able to attend to and lift uninjured fallers, only 6% need further assistance from the Ambulance service. These patients do not have to be a Progress Lifeline customer; the ambulance service will refer anyone in Lancashire who needs assistance.

Key speaker at the conference

We were also proud that our Head of Operations, Joanne Bushell, was a key speaker in three sessions throughout the conference:

? Knowledge Session: Embedding TEC monitoring at the heart of community response

? Networking Session: What does a good responder service look like?

? Winners’ Stories: Innovation, Integration and Improvement in TEC?

Joanne took to the stage to share guidance and best practice for emergency call handling, how to complete an assessment of need, and how to implement appropriate wraparound responses through better referral pathways and technology enabled care services.?

At Progress Lifeline we take, on average, 69,000 calls per month through alarm activations.?

We attend an average of 1,000 to 1,300 call-outs per month and between 65-70% of those visits are falls-related. Of the falls-related call outs, we successfully lift around 70% (approximately 900 lifts per month).

We are proud to be able to deliver a quality and valued service that not only allows us to support the people of Lancashire, but also the ambulance service and the NHS.

Next steps…999 support tool pilot

Progress Lifeline has been chosen to work with the TSA and the NHS as an accredited field site to trial a new 999 call handling support tool, and implement the Urgent Community Responders (UCR) pathway.

The pilot aims to:

a) Bring together Urgent Community Responders (UCR) and our crisis response centres, alongside Ambulance Trusts, to manage ambulance demands.

b) Assist in identifying the opportunities for TEC providers to connect and develop solutions, which will mean that an ambulance call-out will not always be the only option when a service user has fallen and requires medical attention.

c) Result in more appropriate care, closer to home, and help with hospital admission avoidance.

Reducing pressure on emergency services has never been so critical, with an urgent need for the integration of health and social care to support this.

For more information on Progress Lifeline, please visit our website – www.progresslifeline.org.uk