By Andy Ford, Unite Health NIC
The perils of privatised ambulance services have just been shown, yet again, by the collapse of ‘SVL Homecare’ in Kent. It was part of the ‘internal market’ of Tory Health Minister, Andrew Lansley, that these services were often forced out into the private sector, with an all too predictable result – failure.
Ambulance services are provided in two parts – the emergency service that we are all familiar with, and the Patient Transport Service (PTS) that takes elderly and sick patients to and from their appointments.
The SVL company provided PTS ambulance services to Guys and St Thomas’ and Kings College Hospital in London, and Bromley and Sidcup in the suburbs. It recently ceased trading with only six hours notice! SVL was one of the biggest PTS providers in London. It ‘won the contract’ from another private company, called Community Ambulance Services (CAS), presumably by putting in a lower bid, and so the staff were moved across under TUPE rules. Constant bidding and undercutting has had a predictable result.
The warning signs were there, and escalated from the company first failing to file its accounts; then the fuel cards stopped working; then the vehicle-tracking system went offline, the staff didn’t get paid, and finally, the ‘customers’ – that is the hospitals – were told at midnight that the service was not going to be delivered from 6am the next day. Incredibly, some staff even received texts mid-shift telling them to stop work.
Left without pay, news or updates
No fewer than 390 staff were left high and dry, without pay, with overtime owing, and with no news or updates. Patients were left with no transport to and from their appointments. “We’ve heard nothing”, one worker said. “I’m worried for the patients we used to pick up. I was doing about 10 transfers a day. The renal patients have to go to hospital three times a week. How will they get there now?”
Shamefully, the hospitals played down the whole disgraceful episode. Kings College Hospital management issued a statement in which they told the world that they were “working at pace” to identify another (probably private) provider. “On Tuesday evening, SVL informed both trusts that they would be unable to provide these services from Wednesday onwards. Our staff have worked tirelessly to ensure continuity of service for our patients…”
“Thanks to the phenomenal work of our patient transport team who worked through Tuesday night making alternative arrangements”, Guy’s and St Thomas’ said, “over 95% of our patient journeys on Wednesday went ahead as planned.” That is code for “we booked them taxis”.
In a further development, SVL’s chaos spread to Bath and North Somerset, where, somehow, SVL had won another big PTS contract. There is now an enquiry as to how they got the contract, when they were manifestly not equipped to deliver it.
The ‘dynamism’ of the market. Or is it ‘creative destruction’? It is time to bring all ambulance services back into the NHS. Wes Streeting – are you listening?
