27.07.12
Four private providers to answer 999 calls during Olympics
London NHS ambulance service has signed contracts worth almost £900,000 with private sector ambulances to answer 999 calls and cope with extra demand during the Olympics.
The private sector firms will provide up to 50 vehicles a day in contracts worth a total of £882,137. Supplied by X9 Healthcare, AST Ambulance Service, Thames Ambulance Group and Lifecare Medics, the ambulances will cover the Olympics and Paralympic Games.
The London Ambulance Service (LAS) is expecting a 5% increase in requests for an ambulance, due to the surge in visitors in the Capital. Each team has undergone the same training and will carry the same equipment as paramedics in the LAS.
Jason Killens, LAS’s assistant director of operations, told the Guardian: “We have consciously spread the risk between four organisations, so if there’s an issue with one of these four organisations we have contracted with, we only lose part of it, not all of it.
“They will be answering 999 calls in the normal way. They will be controlled by our people at out control room atWaterloo. LAS staff will continue to answer all the calls and to direct the ambulances to where they are needed.”
But unions have opposed the plans for privatising key parts of the NHS service.
Gavin Davies, GMB’s lead officer for the NHS southern region, said: “It is time to stop the constant outsourcing and the constant degrading of our professional ambulance colleagues.”
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