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.

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

The four strong team at the Welsh Ambulance Services’ North Wales Non Emergency Transport Booking Centre (NET Centre) organises transport to and from hospitals and clinics for patients attending appointments and for those being transferred from one hospital to another.

NET Centre Manager Beth Doyle said: “The team plays an important part in getting people to their hospital and clinical appointments. They are the first port of call for patients enquiring about non-emergency transport and we can get up to 300 calls a day on some occasions.

Read full article: Your Vale

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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A consultant at Ninewells in Dundee has said too many pensioners are taken to A & E at night when they could be treated in their care home by a nurse or GP.

Dr Bill Morrison said some spend several hours on trolleys while they wait for ambulances to take them home.

He said often the patient had been in hospital for a minor problem.

‘More humane’

A patient transport service does not run at Ninewells overnight so patients often have to be taken back to their care home by ambulance.

If the ambulance is at an emergency it can be some time before it can collect the patient, who could be admitted to a short-stay ward or put on a trolley.

Read full article: BBC NEWS.