ELECTION 2019: PEOPLE POWER Labour’s Scandal of £88m taxis bill in ambulance crisis give fans in footie BOARD SEATS LET THEM
BOJO’S SUCH A TWITT
THE waste of the NHS’S £88million taxi bill for patients has been revealed in a survey of hospital and ambulance trusts’ spending.
Labour has pledged to abolish use of private cars and instead run properly equipped ambulances after the revelation that scarce cash is being squandered.
The tab for using private cars where there is a shortage of ambulances is equivalent to the cost of 3,500 nurses or 3,200 doctors on starting pay.
Labour Freedom of Information requests show that last year ambulance trusts nationwide spent £68million on private ambulances and £19.9million on taxis, up almost 17 per cent on the previous year. Biggest private spender was the South Central Service in the Home Counties, where the price of private ambulances last year reached £28.4million, a rise from £27.7million in the previous year.
North West Ambulance Service spent £9.5million on taxis for patients in 2018, an increase of £711,447 compared to 2017.
Ambulance trusts insist no injured or accident victims are transported privately, that patient conditions are monitored and taxi firms vetted.
But Labour says the sums are to too high and patients d do not have enough sa safeguards.
In one ca case an elderly wo woman was taken to a private ambulan ambulance in the m middle of the night after waiting in hospital all day for a trust vehicle to take her home.
Government figures show that national ambulance response times have been met only three times in the last 12 months. The target is for arrival in seven minutes.
An 18 minute response target for category two calls, which can include heart attack or stroke victims, was never met in any of the 10 ambulance trust areas in England.
Labour pledged to provide funding to boost recruitment of paramedic teams and provide “stateof-the-art” ambulances.
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “These shortages are so severe that ambulance staff have had no choice but to hire taxis to ferry patients around.
“We will make sure enough paramedics and state-of-the art vehicles are provided so that we can abolish this practice.”
LABOUR has vowed to give footie fans a say on who scores the manager’s job at their beloved clubs. who the manager is.” Under the bid to overhaul footie club governance and ownership, supporters’ trusts would also be allowed to buy block lock shares when clubs change ange hands – bringing the possibility of securing ring more board places.
Other aspects of f the Labour package include ude a Fan’s Fare scheme under nder which supporters would d get cash for travel paid back if matches are changed for the benefit of broadcasters. And new regulations would cover safe standing areas ar with decisions made j jointly by fans, club manage management and safety authorities authorities.
Proposals also include a guarantee that th the Premier League will be b legally required to invest five per cent of income
from TV