A patient transport company which is taking over contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds is grappling with concerns about service performance and risk to patients, writes HSJ.
EMED has been delivering the non-emergency patient transport service in the Surrey Heartlands area since April.
HSJ has learned that several trusts have repeatedly highlighted problems with missed and late appointments, including those for renal patients attending for dialysis.
One trust – Ashford and St Peter’s – said in a board paper the contract “continues to generate significant patient safety and patient experience concerns across the whole system”.
The Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust’s board papers said challenges had “a knock-on effect with patient experience, particularly in end of life care transfers, and longer waits for patients being discharged”.
The five-year Surrey Heartlands contract is worth around £43m before VAT.
EMED has also recently won a 10-year contract – which is worth around £223m — covering Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West and Frimley integrated care systems, and a contract covering Sussex which is worth around £230m over 10 years. It has also won a contract in Derbyshire worth up to £59m excluding VAT over five years. These all start in April 2025.
All of the contracts in the South East were previously run by South Central Ambulance Service Foundation Trust which expects 330 staff in the Thames Valley and 140 in Sussex to transfer to EMED in April.
EMED describes itself as “one of the largest health and care partners to the NHS” and says it has 2,800 staff operating from 500 sites.
EMED Group said in a statement: “We continue to work with NHS Surrey Heartlands and system partners to embed the new service. Following the transfer of service in April, we have invested heavily to support a number of emerging themes and trends within the service. We continue to work with system partners and the ICB to ensure the service is appropriately aligned to meet the needs of Surrey patients, taking swift action where needed.”
ASPH has directly commissioned two ambulances for 10 hours a day to mitigate some of the problems. A report to its board said patient complaints were very high, staff sometimes had to stay on site to look after patients waiting for transport after units had closed, and it was increasingly relying on contracted third-party transport which came at a cost.
Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board’s board papers show concern over a high volume of complaints, safe transfer of patients and “poor quality of care for renal and end of life” patients. EMED is under “enhanced oversight”, according to its board papers.
Sumona Chatterjee, chief delivery officer for the ICB, said: “We have worked closely with EMED and system partners to embed the new contract and, following feedback and some concerns that have been raised, we have taken swift action where needed, with action plans now in place to address a number of areas including performance, quality and patient safety.
“Through senior and executive engagement, site visits and individual round table meetings with our acute partners, we have been able to act on concerns raised and identify remedial steps with immediate effect. We are committed to ensuring the service provides a high standard of care quality and safety and continue to work alongside EMED and our system partners to identify and respond to any emerging themes and trends.
“We have already seen incremental improvements across the majority of indicators, and while challenges persist, we expect to see further improvements over the coming weeks and months. We will continue to monitor progress closely and we have also put plans in place to ensure resilience during the winter period.”
Source: HSJ
Date: 15 December