Make Ready Centres involve a system which sees ambulances prepared by a dedicated team of specialists in a purpose built or converted building, who clean, restock and check the equipment on ambulances before the beginning and at the end of every shift.
For years paramedic staff were responsible for cleaning, restocking, fueling and maintaining their ambulances at the beginning and end of every shift. This was a time consuming process that took specialist care staff away from looking after patients.
Statistics from the the South East Coast Ambulance Service show the real benefits of this new Make Ready system;
- Improved infection control rates – by way of assurance swab test are undertaken by an independent laboratory on 10% of the vehicles that have been deep cleaned. Not surprisingly, the results would indicate that the repetitive cleaning undertaken at every shift in the MRC produces a higher standard.
- Critical vehicles failure rates – The Trust’s target for vehicles failures at the start or during a shift is four vehicles failures in every 25,000 miles. In the Make Ready system there are no failures at the beginning of shifts. When the Make Ready Centre in Thanet began there were about six failures per day compared now to a maximum of six per month. The less failures the more time an ambulance crew is available to respond to patients
- Deep cleaning – 100 per cent of vehicles are deep cleaned every six weeks in Make Ready Centres. This involves the vehicles being stripped down of all equipment and furniture and cleaned. The percentage outside the Make Ready system is 75%.
- Equipment failure rates – Under the Make Ready system there are very few failures such as infected, not being there, out of date or not working equipment. At ambulance stations moving to the Make Ready Centre in Ashford, six per cent of stock was unusable (cost £2,000) prior to moving to the Make Ready Centre. The vehicles held 14 per cent of unusable/out of date stock (£3,600). At Paddock Wood stations eight per cent of stock was unusable (£3,600). On vehicles 18 per cent of equipment was unusable (£4,300). Overall £14,000 stock from stations and vehicles was unusable.
We were delighted to help in the production of this video that explains the Make Ready system and the benefits to paramedics and ultimately patients.
Chawton Hill has to date been involved in a number of Make Ready centres across the South East and other regions of the UK.
Here’s a stop motion video of Polegate, Crawley being built;
If you would like further information on our Make Ready Centre expertise or are considering a similar system in your NHS Trust area please Contact Us