New plans to modernise non-emergency patient transport services in Wales unveiled

Non-emergency patient transport services in Wales will be enhanced and their operating hours extended as part of wide-ranging plans to modernise the service, Deputy Health Minister Vaughan Gething has announced.

The plans will improve quality of care through the provision of a safe and timely service which will meet the needs of individual patients and reduce pressures on the 999 emergency ambulance service.

Under the new arrangements, the Emergency Ambulance Services Committee will commission non-emergency patient transport services for health boards from April 2016 and enhanced services for oncology and renal patients by September 2016.

Other changes to be put in place by March 2017 include:

• A national set of service standards and requirements to extend the hours of the service between 6am and 8pm Monday to Friday as well as improving the discharge and transfer of patients from all scheduled care services
• Disaggregation of the non-emergency patient transport service from the emergency ambulance service, ensuring appropriate focus on each important patient group
• A new non-emergency patient transport service brand.

The new plans will be delivered within the £25m budget health boards have for non-emergency patient transport services every year.

The reforms follow recommendations made by Professor Siobhan McClelland’s in her Strategic Review of Welsh Ambulance Services. They also build on the successful pilots featured in the Griffiths review of non-emergency patient transport services.

Mr Gething said:

“I am pleased to announce I have been able to agree the plans that have been developed by Wales’ health boards and the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust for modernising non-emergency patient transport services in Wales.

“These plans mark a step change in the commissioning, planning and delivery of the service which will see non-emergency patient transport services delivering greater benefits for patients and NHS Wales.

“They have been developed following considerable engagement across the NHS and with trades unions, local authorities and service users.

“They have also been developed at a time when the Welsh Ambulance Service is being transformed into clinically-responsive service which sits at the heart of our unscheduled care system.”

The modernisation plans will be implemented in a phased way in order to ensure a smooth and planned transition to the new arrangements.