GPs hire private ambulance firm to run urgent transport service

Doctors in rural Yorkshire have turned to a private firm to run urgent ambulance services for sick patients amid growing concerns over deteriorating 999 response times.
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The service aims to speed up treatment for up to 2,000 patients a year in the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby area judged by GPs to need urgent hospital care but not emergency 999 transport.

The scheme, partly designed to lift pressure on 999 services, comes in the wake of a significant worsening in ambulance response times across Yorkshire and other parts of the country, blamed on soaring demand.

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Latest figures indicate only around 70 per cent of casualties in the region have been reached within eight minutes by 999 crews against a target of 75 per cent since April.

Demand in the region is up 12 per cent over the period compared to 2013 but in the Vale of York, Richmondshire and Whitby it has risen with by 24 per cent, with 2,000 more calls.

Ambulances summoned by GPs for urgent care are expected to be with patients within four hours but NHS officials say crews are often delayed while they deal with emergencies, leaving some calls-outs to be upgraded to 999 as patients deteriorate.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service, which provides the existing service, bid for the contract to run a pilot scheme from November to March but lost out to private firm Medical Services (North East) Ltd.

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Charles Parker, a GP in Topcliffe, near Thirsk, and a member of the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) board, said: “By employing an alternative level of ambulance response, we are hoping to improve both the experience of patients awaiting transport for hospital admissions, and the time it takes for blue-light ambulances to get to life-threatening events in the community.”

Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: “In the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby area the demand from GPs for ambulances to transport patients to hospital is significantly higher than commissioners had planned for. This has led to the local CCG’s decision to contract a private provider to fulfil this role on a temporary basis.”