EMED, a private patient transport company taking over contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, is reported to be grappling with concerns about service performance and risk to patients.
EMED has been delivering the non-emergency patient transport service in the Surrey Heartlands area since April.
HSJ reported that several trusts have repeatedly highlighted problems with missed and late appointments, including those for renal patients attending for dialysis.
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.
Full story in the HSJ, 13 December 2024
