Yorkshire's Non Emergency Ambulances Clock up 7.5m Miles in a Year

Monday, 17 October 2022 06:00

By Matthew Pells

Yorkshire Ambulance Service says that working with private transport providers has helped it to maintain its non-emergency patient transport services over the last year.

The Patient Transport Service (PTS) provides NHS-funded transport for eligible people who are unable to travel to their healthcare appointments by other means due to their medical condition or mobility needs.

Chief Exec - Rod Barnes - says social distancing requirements put extra strain on the service, but solutions were found.

Between April 2021 and March 2022 the PTS in Yorkshire completed 706,176 non-emergency journeys, covering 7,546,273 miles, making Yorkshire Ambulance Service one of the largest providers in the UK.

The Yorkshire Ambulance Service has now been selected to take part in a new project to look at how non-emergency transport services for patients can be provided through partnership working.

The pilot scheme will see the service working with external transport providers to deliver some journeys.

Chief Exec - Rod Barnes - says the trial comes alongside a continuing investment in new non-emergency ambulances.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service say that the PTS pathfinder pilots will focus on:

Exploring ways to better signpost people to non-emergency transport options.
Strengthening the role of community transport in patient transport, particularly through improving the recruitment (and retention) of volunteer drivers and integrating community transport better into local coordination platforms, with potential scoping for YAS to be the lead PTS provider in the region.