Liecestershire/Rutland patient transport improvements promised

Back in July it was reported that in a recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said Arriva Transport Solutions' service which provides hospital patient transport in Leicestershire and Rutland had been failing people. The report said that there were problems with staffing the service, the management of the service and that the service was failing in respect of care and welfare. This lead Leicester deputy mayor Rory Palmer saying that "Too many patients are receiving an extremely poor service from Arriva Transport Solutions." They were given three month to clean up their act or face the threat of fines.

Examples of poor care reported include the case of Olive Burns, who was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary after a fall, waited in the discharge lounge from 08:30 until 19:30 BST before she was taken to her care home. And this is just one extreme case and their have been others where patients are discharged to the holding lounge to wait for hours and hours. These I have seen with my own eyes when the same thing happened to me. Many of the patient waiting were old, frail and in some cases very confused as to why they weren't being taken home.

Today Arriva Transport Solutions' said it was investing in staff and punctuality was better. this was in response to the claims that patients were "often" arriving late for appointments, and taxi drivers with "poor attitudes" being used when other resources were unavailable. In a recent public meeting the company's managing director, Jonathan May, said he was "disappointed" with the delays but claimed "improvements" were being made. To solve the problem the of vehicles has been increased by 14% and the number of staff by 20%. The company are promising that this will improve the service.

Before the service was handed over to Arriva Transport Solutions' to reduce the cost of patient transport the service patients were transported by East Midlands Ambulance Service. And the mess lead Leicester deputy mayor to say "This is yet another example of big, national companies winning lucrative NHS contracts up and down the country and letting patients down." To me it is an example of private companies providing public services and cutting everything to breaking point to preserve profits. It is the one reason why the NHS should be privatised in part or as a whole. People deserve better.