NHS spending on private ambulances for 999 calls in England has trebled in four years, BBC research has found.
Ambulance trusts paid private companies and voluntary organisations £68.7m to attend emergency calls in 2015-6, compared to £22.1m in 2011-2. They respond to all types of calls.
NHS England said 999 calls for ambulances rose 4.5% last year.
Unions attacked “creeping privatisation” and called for more money for staff recruitment.
The ambulance service in England took 861,000 emergency phone calls in March 2016 – which equates to 27,800 a day – compared to 22,400 calls a day in March 2015, a rise of 24%.
Contractors include private firms and charities such as St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross….read more
Dear Reader,
If you like our content please support our campaigning journalism to protect health care for all.
Our goal is to inform people, hold our politicians to account and help to build change through evidence based ideas.
Everyone should have access to comprehensive healthcare, but our NHS needs support. You can help us to continue to counter bad policy, battle neglect of the NHS and correct dangerous mis-infomation.
Supporters of the NHS are crucial in sustaining our health service and with your help we will be able to engage more people in securing its future.
Please donate to help support our campaigning NHS research and journalism.
Comments are closed.