An ambulance service must improve their standards after an inspection.

The Care Quality Commission, CQC, has published a report saying the East of England Ambulance Service must make improvements to safety and response times.

Following his inspection in March, professor Ted Baker, said: “A number of improvements are still clearly needed.

“We found improvements had been made with regard to safeguarding, staff understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and incident reporting procedures.

“But the trust still did not meet national ambulance response standards and over the winter period delays resulted in a number of serious incidents.”

Prof Baker says that the inspection revealed worryingly low morale after late shifts and frustration between management and staff.

He said: “People said they did not always feel valued, particularly after what had been an exhausting winter.

“The trust leadership knows what action it must take to bring about improvement and we will return to inspect and check on its progress.”

The report maintains that the rating will remain unchanged since its last inspection in April 2017.

East of England Ambulance Service chief executive Robert Morton, said: “Yet again our staff were rated as ‘outstanding’ for caring.

“The team inspected our Trust during the most challenging winter for the NHS on record, just weeks after a risk summit called for the NHS system in the region to work together to improve patient experience.

“The improvements the CQC saw were in some areas of the Patient Transport Services and our Emergency Operations Centres where we handle and triage 999 calls.

“I’d like to thank everyone who welcomed the inspection team and gave their views, supported our colleagues in providing a wealth of data and information to the CQC before, during and after the inspection.”