Private ambulance firms ‘are not a risk to patients’

Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by the Labour Party revealed the amount spent on private ambulances in Yorkshire had risen from £500,000 a year in 2010/11 to £1.8m in 2012/13.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said he would write to his Tory counterpart Jeremy Hunt to ask for assurances about the safety and quality of all privately-provided emergency ambulance services.

He said: “When people dial 999, they don’t expect a private ambulance to turn up. This news will open people’s eyes to the way the NHS is changing under David Cameron.

“This is cost-cutting privatisation at its crudest, with a real risk that patient safety will be compromised.”

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Ambulance Service said the majority of its spend on private ambulances over the last two years had been for non-emergency patient transport services and denied the party’s claims it could put patients’ safety at risk.

The service is understood to have spent more in recent years because of higher demand over the past two winters.

She said: “As a professional ambulance service we would always prefer to respond to patients and transport them using our own staff and vehicles.

“However, when demand for our services is particularly high, our own resources can be complemented by St John Ambulance, British Red Cross and private ambulance service providers.”

The spokeswoman said all contractors used are registered with regulator the Care Quality Commission.

She said: “Safeguards and operating standards are in place to ensure that the use of private ambulance services does not compromise patient safety.”

The figures revealed that spending on private contractors in the last two years had also increased at two other English ambulance services

South East Coast Ambulance service spent £7.3m in 2012/13, up from £1.9m in 2010/11. In London it rose from under £400,000 to £4.2m.