ERS Medical goes from strength to strength
It’s been a busy 2019 so far for ERS Medical!
The company, that provides patient transport and healthcare courier services, has won six new contracts just in its Northern region alone, while retaining another contract it has held for 6 years.
In March, our Manchester site went live with a new 2-year contract providing non emergency patient transport services (NEPTS) to cover short notice discharges and transfers across Pennine Lancashire. Awarded by the NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group, the contract sees our crews primarily collecting patients from Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital but also from Pendle Community Hospital, Clitheroe Community Hospital and Accrington Victoria Community Hospital as required.
A new NEPTS service also went live in North Tees in April. This contract, awarded by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, has 3 vehicles and covers the North Tees and Hartlepool geographic area including towns such as Stockton, Hartlepool, Billingham and Norton. ERS Medical was delighted to have been awarded this contract following a good working relationship with the Trust since 2009.
Our patient transport services (PTS) have also been utilised in South Yorkshire as we worked with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for four months earlier in the year on their PTS Winter Contingency Contract. Our ERS Medical base in Mansfield provided 3 shifts on each day covering a 24 hour period 7 days a week.
ERS Medical also provides secure patient transport for the movement and care of people with mental health illness. In the North East, we have mobilised three new secure patient transport contracts this year. Our 3 year contract with Northumberland Tyne & Wear, commissioned by Northumbria Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, runs out of our Durham and Blyth sites and provides patient transport to secure patient facilities across the area.
Our Durham site delivers the new secure patient transport service (SPT) for NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS Darlington CCG, NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-On-Tees CCG, NHS North Durham CCG, and NHS South Tees CCG (DDT). We were awarded a 2-year contract to be the main contractor for the conveying of patients detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA) when the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) cannot provide transport for any given SPT request due to demands placed upon them.
For the fourth year running, we continued to deliver secure patient transportation through the contract award from Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys Foundation NHS Trust. This contract has a large geographical spread and sees us working across the Vale of York; Harrogate & Craven; Scarborough, Whitby & Ryedale; Hambleton & Richmondshire; Teeside; County Durham and Darlington.
A little further North and into Scotland, ERS Medical was delighted to have been awarded the ‘out of hours’ transport services 3 year contract for NHS Fife Primary Care Emergency Service (PCES). We have been providing ‘out of hours’ transport services for NHS Fife since 1 April 2014, transporting general practitioners (GPs) to see patients at home visits.
Most recently we have been awarded a five year contract by the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CCGs to provide non emergency patient transport across Nottinghamshire. The contract, which commences on 1st December 2019, will see ERS Medical conducting over 215,000 patient journeys per year. In addition to the contract wins, ERS Medical has been awarded four frameworks, they include the London Procurement Partnership; North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative; South East Coast Ambulance and North East Ambulance Service frameworks.
In just under two years, since ERS Medical was sold and relaunched under new ownership, the business has gone from strength to strength.
Managing Director, Andrew Pooley, says: “It’s a very exciting time for us as we take big steps towards delivering our 5 year vision . Over the past 18 months our focus has been on establishing and bedding in the compliance and governance systems that are the fundamental foundations for the business. Ensuring we had the basics in place from day one, to ensure the highest standard of patient care, allows us to grow our service provision without compromising on quality. We look forward to working with our NHS partners delivering patient transportation and continuing our success this far.”
