NHS spends £92 million on private ambulances

New research has revealed that major ambulance trusts across England are increasingly relying on private ambulances to attend 999 calls.

Press Association research found that England’s ambulance trusts collectively spent more than £92 million in the last year on private ambulances and taxis to transport patients, with some trusts relying on private ambulances due to a chronic shortage of NHS staff and ongoing problems with recruitment.

The Care Quality Commission published a damning report earlier this year warning that patients were being put at risk by private ambulances.

The latest research shows that in some parts of the South, almost one in five emergency calls result in a private ambulance being sent to the scene. The South Central Ambulance Service increased its spend on private ambulances for 999 calls in the space of a year, from £12,994,544 to £15,382,218. In total, private ambulances attended 17.69 per cent of incidents following a 999 call in 2018/19, up from 16.19 per cent the year before.

The data also showed that the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust spent £9.5 million on private ambulances for 999 and non-urgent work in 2018/19, double the £4.8m the year before.  Its reliance on private ambulances to attend 999 calls rose, with more than double the number of 999 incidents resulting in a private ambulance being sent to the scene.

In fact, some 26,428 incidents in 2018/19 involved a private ambulance being required, up from 12,947 the year before. Private ambulances were sent to 5.21 per cent of all 999 incidents in 2018/19, up from 2.59 per cent the year before.