A plan to sell off NHS patient transport services in north Essex will “drive down standards for staff and patients,” warns UNISON today.
The Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board is responsible for commissioning non-emergency patient transport services that take people requiring specialist support to and from hospital and other medical appointments.
The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust currently runs the service in north-east Essex but in Suffolk a private company currently has the contract. Both contracts run out next March, says the union.
But the care board is pricing the ambulance service out of the new single contract combining both areas by refusing to pay enough to ensure staff get the same wages, holidays and sick pay as other NHS workers.
The ambulance trust has already told passenger transport staff it won’t be bidding for the new contract as it stands, says the union.
UNISON is warning that any company that takes over the new contract would have to cut corners on standards and attack staff pay and conditions to make a profit.
The union is urging the local care board to work with the ambulance service and UNISON to come up with a contract that allows the service to continue to be run by the NHS.
UNISON East of England Ambulance Service branch chair Glenn Carrington said: “The integrated care board has a golden opportunity to bring patient transport back into a single NHS contract, where staff are treated well and can treat patients properly
“But instead, board managers seem to want to do things on the cheap, and drive down standards for staff and patients.
“Any private provider would have to cut corners and slash staff wages and conditions to make the contract pay.
“If the care board is serious about delivering a quality service to patients, it needs to work with UNISON and the ambulance service to come up with a contract that works for everyone.”
