Agenda item

Ian Ayres (Accountable Officer, NHS West Kent CCG) was in attendance for this item.

(1)       Mr Ayres kindly offered to stay for this item and answer Members’ questions. A number of questions were raised about the possibility of decommissioning the Patient Transport Services. Mr Ayres accepted that the position with NSL Kent, the current provider, was not good and gave an assurance to the Committee that improvements would be made. Mr Ayres explained that there was a real threat in lead up to Christmas that the service could have lost its provider; the service has now been stabilised. The CCG were meeting with NSL Kent to reassess the contract on current activity including the vehicles and staff required to meet the peaks of demand. Additional funding had been secured to reassess the contract; external analysis of the current contract found that the money available and the services expected to be provided were out of balance.

(2)       Mr Ayres acknowledged that the problems encountered with both providers: Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CAMHS) and NSL Kent had been partly caused by incorrect information about service usage being given during the tendering process. Mr Ayres explained that under the previous provider a block contract was awarded which had led to a lack of record keeping on service activity. With the move to payment by results contracts, a key lesson has been learnt by the CCG about the importance of undertaking a year of recording service activity before going out to tender. The CCG would look to decommission the service if performance targets were not met under the terms of the reassess contract.

(3)       Members enquired about the recent CQC Inspection Report. Mr Ayres acknowledged that the criticisms within the CQC report. He explained that the unannounced inspection took place in the same week as new manager started with NSL Kent. After due consideration the CQC decided to allow the service to continue; as it believed that the CCG and NSL would be able resolve the issues and make changes. Mr Ayres explained that the recommendations made by CQC had been implemented. The most significant recommendation, the Disclosure and Barring Service checks on staff, had been completed with the exception of staff on long term sickness absence. One of the Members requested the Scrutiny Research Officer to circulate the link to the CQC report.

(4)       In response to a specific question about NSL Kent staff taking strike action it was explained that the GMB trade union members of NSL Kent’s staff had voted to take strike action but had not yet called a strike. The vote was taken before new local management was introduced.

(5)       There was a discussion about alternative providers for Patient Transport Services. Mr Ayres explained that there were a limited number of providers and it would take a minimum of six months for a new provider to be put in place. Further, the commissioning of a Kent and Medway wide service had put an unhelpful complexity into the system. One of the former providers SECAmb has performance issues in Surrey and Sussex and would be significantly more expensive than the current provider. At the time of tendering, the previous providers from the hospital trusts did not want to continue; there was a consensus amongst them that there should be a single organisation to provide all services. Mr Ayres has spoken to a number of CCGs who have also commissioned NSL for Patient Transport Services. Commissioners in the West Midlands and West Country had been satisfied with provision whilst the East Midlands had had issues with the service. None of the commissioners had faced the scale of difficulties with NSL as experienced in Kent.

(6)       RESOLVED that the Committee thanks Mr Ayres for his attendance and contributions today, asks that the CCG and NSL take on board the comments made by Members during the meeting and looks forward to a return visit by the CCG and NSL in April.