Patient Transport Services: Northern Lincolnshire

Nicholas Dakin Excerpts

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Percy]

I am sorry to learn that the experiences extend also to County Durham, because going to hospital is stressful enough in and of itself, particularly if one is very elderly or very vulnerable, as many people who use these services are, but especially so if one is not sure whether one will get home at the end of one’s treatment or after an appointment.

This is not, of course, a reflection on the frontline staff of Thames Ambulance Service, who are doing their very best in very difficult circumstances. I will come on to what some of the whistleblowers who have contacted us from that service have told us.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

rose—

[Andrew Percy]

Of course I will give way to my neighbour in Scunthorpe.

[Nic Dakin]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate. I have regularly had messages commenting about patient transport arriving late to pick people up, sometimes too late to get to appointments in time; patient transport sending unsuitable vehicles, so that disabled patients cannot access the transport; transport arriving late to a pick-up from hospital. That is a consistent theme. I have met with Thames. They held their hands up and said they had got problems. They said they were going to sort them out, but sadly, a month later, the problem is not getting any better.

[Andrew Percy]

I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour for that intervention. This is the problem. In many ways, it is nice that Thames Ambulance Service have met him. The correspondence that I have repeatedly sent them, chased by their official complaints procedure, by their chief executive, has not been responded to. So constituents who have not had a response have come to me, and I have then gone to Thames Ambulance Service, which has not responded to me. The service has not got any better. I will cite a few of the examples that my constituents have given, which are similar to my hon. Friend’s experience.

These experiences are being wrought on very vulnerable people. I want to go through a number of examples from my constituency. I will not name patients.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Percy]

It has a whole knock-on effect, whether it be individuals having to find their own transport, missed appointments or rescheduled appointments—it is all incredibly expensive—and it is not just patients who have these terrible experiences, of course; it is also the drivers. I have had whistleblowers from the service contact my office. One said they come on duty at 12 o’clock and are expected at the same time to be at Castle Hill Hospital in Hull with patients. They have described themselves as being at their wits’ end and thoroughly stressed. One contacted me recently about a 100-year-old lady who had to wait three and a half hours to get home.

[Nic Dakin]

It is interesting to reflect that back before Thames took over the contract we did not have these problems. When we, as northern Lincolnshire MPs, met the hospital trust, it confirmed that these problems were related to how Thames was operating the contract and that it was adding to their problems trying to deliver high-quality care.

[Andrew Percy]

That is absolutely right. There is an argument for saying that those who provide the emergency services—East Midlands Ambulance Service in the case of Scunthorpe—are better able to provide the patient transport services, just as in Goole we would want Yorkshire Ambulance Service to provide the patient transport. There seems to be some sense in that, unless it is a very strong local community transport organisation that we know we can trust. Yes, there are always examples of failure, but we did not have this recurrent theme of failure under the previous system.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Caroline Dinenage)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) on securing the debate. As he has so elegantly articulated, the provision of patient transport services is important to many people throughout the country.

Let me take this opportunity to give heartfelt thanks to all the staff in the health and care system. They work tirelessly in often difficult circumstances, routinely going above and beyond the call of duty to keep patients safe. Those dedicated people make our NHS truly great. No one knows that better than my hon. Friend, who spends weekends volunteering as a first responder with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. He deserves massive thanks for everything that he does in that role, as do all first responders up and down the country.

We recognise that effective patient transport services are vitally important, not only to ensure the provision of high-quality, safe services for patients, but to ensure that patient flow through hospitals is not slowed by missed medical appointments or delayed patient discharges. We are clear that local NHS CCGs must ensure that reliable, safe and comfortable patient transport services are delivered and maintained.

Patient transport services, like almost all other health services, are locally commissioned and provided to ensure that they are well adapted to local conditions. It is for local CCGs to set appropriate expectations of service with their providers and to take swift action where they fall short. However, that is not to say that the Government have no expectations of how these services should be delivered and should function. There is well-established national guidance on who is eligible to use patient transport services which makes it very clear that patients should reach appointments in reasonable time and comfort without detriment to their medical condition. NHS England has also communicated with the CCGs about their responsibilities when commissioning patient transport services via its CCG bulletin.

[Nic Dakin]

I congratulate the Minister on taking up her new post, which I am sure she will do very well. She said that CCGs should take swift action when things are not working. What does swift action look like? This has been going on for some time now; how quickly should the people of northern Lincolnshire expect to have the patient transport service they deserve?

[Caroline Dinenage]

Of course, we have devolved this matter locally and it is up to the local CCG to take action. I know that a recovery plan is in place and the delivery of the plan is now being monitored weekly, but the hon. Gentleman is right, and, like my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole, he has kept on articulating this issue and asking these questions on behalf of his constituents, to try to find out when they will see a visible difference to the service, because it is currently not good enough.

Patient transport providers are also required to be registered and inspected by the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health services. This Government have given the CQC more powers, and it is now able to rate independent healthcare transport providers in the same way as NHS ambulance services. We fully support the CQC in its work to ensure that users of patient transport services are protected, and where services are not good enough and the necessary improvements have not been made, it can take further action, including issuing fines, service restrictions, and ultimately the cancellation of a provider’s registration.

Additionally, we are very supportive of the Department for Transport-led total transport initiative, which I think was what my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole was referring to, and which is currently piloting the joint commissioning of public sector-funded transport in order to reduce the risk of services overlapping, improve efficiency, and provide a better overall service to passengers.

From the local work carried out so far, it has become clear there are a range of potential benefits for the NHS, including helping to avoid bed blocking—where patients sometimes cannot go home because non-emergency patient transport is not available—and improving access to NHS services by reducing missed appointments due to late or unavailable transport. We have asked NHS England to ensure that CCGs are all engaging in this important work.