THE firm which provides Derbyshire's non-urgent ambulance transport has had its contract cut short by health bosses because of its "disappointing performance".
In July 2012, private company NSL took over a multi-million-pound contract from East Midlands Ambulance Service to provide this transport for patients in Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire.
But health bosses now say they are concerned that NSL is not meeting "key performance targets" – including how punctually it was dropping patients off at hospital and then getting them back home.
This includes getting 95% of patients to their appointments 10 to 30 minutes before their appointment time, which NSL is not achieving.
Two actions plans were put in place last year to improve performance but members of the NHS Erewash Clinical Commissioning Group, the GP-led group responsible for overseeing NSL, said it was still disappointing.
They have now decided to change the length of the original five-year contract to three years and three months, which means it ends in September 2015.
In the meantime, the group said the specifications of the contract would be revised to make it "more in line with an NHS contract" – with new performance targets, financial penalties for failing to achieve them and "an incentive payment scheme to reward high-quality performance".
And it said patient transport services would then be put out to tender again in the summer – although NSL has confirmed it will bid for it again.
Rakesh Marwaha, chief officer of NHS Erewash, said: "Clearly, the contract is not meeting the needs of our patients and delivering the high standard of service that they deserve.
"So, we have agreed key changes with NSL to achieve a significant uplift in performance, with appropriate penalties for non-achievement.
"Both NSL and commissioners have added further investment to improve the service and, following discussions at a senior level, a service improvement plan was agreed in August 2013. However, performance has continued to be disappointing and we believe it is in the best interests of patients to re-tender the contract this summer."
Chris Dexter, account director for NSL Care Services in Derbyshire, said: "We welcome the changes to the contract. Both NSL and the commissioners believe that this revision is a mature approach that puts patient needs first and helps NSL to deliver improved patient care.
"The feedback we've been getting shows that we are a good service. We know things are not perfect but we continue to recruit more staff, change our rosters and look at what we can do to improve.
"Of about 22,000 journeys a month, we are only getting around 20 complaints, which shows about 99.9% of people are happy with our service."
