BOSSES at South Western Ambulance Service have said lessons will be learned after a report condemned the Trust’s Dorset-based 111 helpline as ‘inadequate’.

During inspections in March the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found the helpline was poorly staffed and personnel were stressed and exhausted, just weeks after a whistleblower released pictures of staff at the St Leonards call centre asleep at their desks.

Responding to the report, chief executive Ken Wenman said: “The Trust has always been open and transparent and welcomes the CQC report into the delivery of NHS 111 services.

“We treat every patient as our only patient and we want every patient that makes contact with us to have a first class service from an outstanding group of highly-committed staff.

“Nobody knows our organisation and staff like we do and there were no surprises in the main findings of the report as we have already been working collaboratively with our commissioners, NHS Improvement and NHS England colleagues to make improvements.

“We are never complacent on patient safety. Could we do better? Of course we could. Will we learn from this inspection? Of course we will.”

Monitor NHS Improvement has said it is working with the Trust to make improvements.

Regional director Claudia Griffith said: “We will support the trust’s efforts with the improvements they need to make, but for the benefit of patients we will continue to scrutinise the trust until we’re confident that the problems identified by the CQC have been addressed.”

The CQC found call waiting times were “regularly at unacceptable levels” and that callers with an emergency were not assessed “in a timely manner”, putting them at risk.

The report said staff were “dedicated” but believed some senior managers and board members were “remote and lacking an understanding” of the problems they faced.

The CQC has said the Trust must review staff numbers and ensure callers “consistently receive the correct level of advice” after triage.