Patient transport firm will not renew contract
A troubled private ambulance contractor which has twice been slammed by a government watchdog has withdrawn its bid to run the service when its contract ends.
Earlier this year health bosses indicated they would not renew NSL Kent’s three-year contract to transport non-urgent patients from their homes to hospitals, clinics and other healthcare centres around the county.
Months after its start-up in 2013, inspectors from the government’s health watchdog found the Larkfield-based service was failing to meet mandatory targets in four out of five areas.
A follow-up inspection by the Care Quality Commission in March last year found improvements had been made but there were still concerns about recruitment procedure and how complaints were dealt with.
The inspection was followed by the sudden departure of managing director Alastair Cooper.
West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is responsible for securing health transport across the county, had the option to extend NSL’s contract for a further two years, but following consultations with patients they decided to offer it out to tender instead.
The CCG has also decided to divide the existing service into three. The ferrying of dialysis patients to and from regular appointments and transport to Darent Valley Hospital are now being offered as separate, independent contracts.
An NSL spokesperson said: “Our current contract comes to an end in June 2016 and Kent CCG have a procurement process in place to help transition to a new provider next July.
“We have taken the decision not to rebid the contract. We have successfully delivered 197,000 patient journeys in Kent in 2015 and we remain fully committed to delivering outstanding customer experiences for the full duration of the current contract.”
West Kent CCG will announce the outcome of the tendering process in December.