“In a medical emergency, our patients know they have instant access to physicians who are familiar with their personal medical records. With Air Ambulance Card we are able to take that peace of mind one step further, bringing the patient home to the hospital of their choice,” said WorldClinic Director Dr. Dan Carlin.

via Earthlinks.

Union leaders said the jackpot will total hundreds of thousands of pounds, but The Sentinel understands it could rise to £1million.A legal ruling against Parkwood will hand staff up to £2,000 each in compensation for having their wages and conditions wrongly pegged back for the past three years.

But it will also clear the way for other sums in back-pay currently being calculated.National arbitration agency ACAS last night found the company, which ferries 600 patients a day to routine hospital appointments, breached agreements designed to protect workers transferred from the NHS

Read full article: This is Staffordshire.

West Midlands Ambulance Service has been told it can provisionally take over the multi-million pound contract from private firm Parkwood, which has run the service for the past three years.

Read full article: This is Staffordshire.

Lifeline Ambulance Service Limited, which claims it is Ireland’s largest private ambulance operator, last week called for the urgent regulation of the private ambulance sector.

Read full article: Irish Medical News

The people behind the Shetland Independent Ambulance Service (SIAS) said that they were so concerned with the local ambulance cover that they had to act to improve the situation.

Read full article: The Shetland News

VT, the defence and services firm, would maintain the vehicles, making them available for use for a minimum number of days each year in a PFI-style arrangement. It would allow financially squeezed local authorities to cut costs and also bank the cash from selling off these assets.

Read full article: The Observer.

The service takes non-emergency patients to and from hospital, and has several contracts with various hospitals and health bodies.

Read full article: Liverpool Daily Post.co.uk

Industrial action could have crippled the region’s service – which now extends from Crewe to Carlisle – putting patients at risk.

Union leaders, who will now not press ahead with a full ballot, said staff had been furious that North West Ambulance Service bosses were considering changes in how emergency vehicles operate without negotiation.

Read full article: Lancashire Evening Post.

Ray Tinkler was admitted to Bishop Auckland on Sunday, April 5, because he couldn’t talk and was struggling to breathe. On Tuesday, April 7, it was decided that he needed to be scanned at Darlington and he was told to either get a friend to take him or book and pay for a taxi as an ambulance wasn’t available for him.

Read full article: Wear Valley Mercury

The announcement of the plans was met with outrage from consumer groups, as it became clear that rather than invest in additional resources, 999ArrivaNextDay is to use spare capacity in their existing schedules to provide emergency services, but the two companies were quick to allay public concerns and insisted their normal transport and parcel delivery activities would not be adversely affected.

999ArrivaNextDay also insisted they would be fully prepared to deal with the new demands of providing ‘world-class paramedic response’, with priority seating provided on-board and a ‘comprehensive’ first aid kit fitted at all bus stops. However a plan to equip bus shelters with defibrillators for reviving cardiac patients has been dropped after trial kits were principally used by school bullies to get sweets and dinner money from Year 7 pupils.

Leaflets are to be distributed to homes across the UK explaining the changes that will be involved in the new service. At the first sign of an illness that may require hospitalisation families of patients are being instructed to take them to the nearest bus-stop, already in their pyjamas and with personal hygiene supplies, and to do so outside the rush hour where possible. Carriage may also be refused if the patient does not have the correct change for the fare. For home collection, pick-ups are ideally to be booked at least 24 hours ahead, and notification must be given if the patient is unlikely to fit on the back of a 200cc motorbike.

The project has drawn fierce criticism from health sector unions, but NHS bosses have insisted that pilot schemes have proven successful, with patients quickly adapting a ‘traditionally stoical British’ attitude to the new system. ‘It was what you’d expect really,’ commented Jim Mitchell, a trial patient, from his intensive care bed in the St Bart’s Hospital cardiac unit, ‘I waited an hour and a half at the bus stop after my heart attack last Tuesday, and then three ambulances turned up at once…’

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