Non-emergency patient transport hours to be extended in Northern and Eastern Devon
Non-emergency patient transport hours are to be extended in Northern and Eastern Devon from September 2013.
Eligible patients from Northern and Eastern Devon who need help with transport to hospital are set to benefit from a service with extended hours from September this year.
In May 2012 qualified organisations were invited to tender for a five year contract to coordinate all non-emergency patient transport services.
Following a thorough and robust process NSL Limited was awarded the contract to run patient transport services in Northern and Eastern Devon.
As part of the contract specification, the service must run from 7am–9pm, seven days a week, which is an extension of the previous service which ran Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm.
Some patient groups such as renal, oncology and out of area patients, will have the option of accessing services outside of the 7am–9pm time where required.
The process was run by the former primary care trust NHS Devon, who said the successful bid to deliver non-emergency patient transport services in Northern and Eastern Devon will mean patients get a better service for the same cost.
Rebecca Harriott, chief officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We wanted to ensure that patients in Northern and Eastern Devon have access to quality non-emergency patient transport services across a greater range of sites and times than previously provided.
“We have listened to our patients who use the transport service, as well as our healthcare providers, to find out what works best for them.
“Rather than only offering a service from Monday to Friday – 9am-5pm, patients will now get the same level of service but over greatly extended hours which now include weekends and Bank Holidays.
“We also took into account aspects such as patient safety and experience, quality, staff training, and respect and dignity.”
NSL Limited has been successful in securing a number of non-emergency patient transport services contracts across the country.
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT), the current provider, will continue to deliver the service until September 2013.
The transfer of non-emergency patient transport services to a new provider will not impact on A&E services currently provided by SWASFT as these are separate services.
SWASFT will also run Devon’s NHS 111 service which is due to launch during June.
Rebecca Harriott continued: “We would like to thank SWASFT for its provision of patient transport services and we look forward to continuing to work with the trust on its excellent provision of 999 emergency services.”
