“Labour has called for an inquiry after the collapse of a private ambulance firm that has contracts with the NHS and other private health organisations.
Private Ambulance Service, which the trade union Unison described as running an “abysmal” operation, was issued a winding-up notice by the Inland Revenue on Friday. The firm is expected to stop trading on 9 October.
The company has been employed in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire as non-urgent patient transport service. It worked for hospitals including Watford General and Bedford hospital.
Labour MP Justin Madders, the shadow health minister, said: “It is still staggering that under the Tories so many parts of the NHS are being packaged up and sold off to companies who are unable to run the services properly.
“Several hundreds of staff and thousands of patients are now faced with huge uncertainty because of the failings of another private ambulance firm, and it’s not the first time this has happened.”
Madders called for an inquiry into what went wrong, saying the government should place “an immediate halt” on issuing other patient transport contracts until “lessons have been learned”. …”
East Devon Watch 