Focus groups with ’hear and treat’ ambulance service users
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Focus groups with people who have received telephone advice (known as ’hear and treat’ service users) from an ambulance service.
IRAS ID
126108
Contact name
Chris Graham
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Care Quality Commission
Research summary
This research addresses the question, What do people who have received telephone triage or advice from an ambulance service, for a non life threatening or non-serious condition, think are the salient aspects of this experience? The purpose of this research study is to find out what these service users think about the experience they had when they received telephone triage and advice from the ambulance service
This information is important to the public as the data gathered from these service users will help inform the development of a potential new national survey of ambulance telephone triage and advice services that will be included in the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) national patient experience survey program. No national survey in this area has previously been run before, hence a gap in current user reported experience. The results of such a survey will be used for performance measurement, both nationally and locally, to drive improvement in services across ambulance trusts.
Information on experience will be gathered from recent service users through focus groups. To be eligible to take part in these focus groups, potential participants must be over 18 years old and will need to have received telephone advice or triage by an ambulance service. Recruitment for potential participants will be conducted via the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.There will be two focus groups of eight participants each held at the CQC’s London office. Each group will last 1.5 hours. The resulting data from the discussion will be thematically analysed to inform the potential development of a service user experience questionnaire.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/0735
Date of REC Opinion
20 May 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion