News

The Communiqué - Issue No 7 - February 2010

 

Gradual Start To A New Beginning

1st January 2010 saw the start of a new beginning for Medical Services Limited as a company with its own board of directors and a 5 year mission to become the most successful private providers of patient transport and emergency courier services to the NHS.

Outwardly the change will be gradual and largely undetected as we have planned it to be. A considerable amount of work has gone on behind the scenes and is continuing to segregate such functions as accounting, legal, human resources and IT and the effect will become obvious over time.

Joe Sheehan, Managing Director, said: “Our No 1 priority is to ensure that in making the necessary changes we avoid the slightest disruption to our services or affect the care and commitment we give to our patients.”

First outside sign of change are new green uniforms for PTS ambulance crews who will be setting the fashion on the roads of England and Wales this year. New features include specially styled white shirts for female staff and unisex beanie hats; also the uniform will carry   ‘Patient Transport’ instead of ‘Ambulance’ on the back while HDU crews will continue to be identified as ‘Ambulance’.
 

Technology Investment Paying Off 

Continuous investment in state of the art IT software is paying off for Medical Services.

A year ago Cleric APTS (Advanced Passenger Transport Service), our online visual booking and journey satellite tracking system, was rolled out to cover our service to hospitals in Beds and Herts.

The cost effective benefits have been significant and quick to materialize.

Firstly, linking to our system has enabled the Hertfordshire Health Trusts and Hertfordshire County Council, which run the Travellink patient booking service, to save paper and time costs by no longer faxing thousands of individual booking details.

Instead they now send the details, encrypted in a secure electronic file, straight into our N3 servers located in the City of London; the bookings are then instantly viewed by PTS controllers at 6 locations across the two counties’

Secondly, we have been able to reduce our office head count and use the additional funds to recruit 4 additional ambulance staff who go into frontline service at our Luton station this month.

Medical Services Director Judith Jackson:  “This achievement is just one example of how we are using technology to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of our service to hospitals and patients.

“With the NHS facing severe budget pressures over the next few years we are continuously developing new ideas to ensure we provide value for money services across the whole of our organisation in England and Wales”.

Helping Client Beat The Big Freeze

Clients have been generous in recognizing that once again Medical Services responded magnificently in the Big Freeze, maintaining service to clients and commitment to patients during some of the worst and most dangerous weather conditions the country has experienced for maybe half a century.

For example on 6 January our team in Warrington received a call for help from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital which was at ‘red alert’ facing a severe beds shortage; we quickly responded and moved more than 60 patients by the end of the day.

Later Celia Woosey, the hospital’s patient flow manager, commented:

“Your crews were absolutely super, without their help we wouldn’t have coped and simply would have gone into meltdown, we considered using the Territorial Army until you agreed to help us out. The response in such conditions was remarkable and we can't thank you enough"
 

Welsh NHS Courier Contract Extended

The NHS Business Centre in Swansea has confirmed its satisfaction with our courier service in Wales that it has decided to extend our 3 year contract by a further 12 month until July 2011.

From the Medical Services station in Swansea, our team of couriers deliver patient data, secure stationary, health information and documentation to more than 400 GP surgeries and pharmacies as well as dentists and opticians throughout Mid and West Wales.

“This is unglamorous but essential work which largely goes unnoticed and to have the NHS in Wales recognize it in this way is very much welcome” said David Ellis, Medical Services’ Director of Organisational Development.

Toyota recall all clear

Toyota has confirmed that the Prius hybrid cars in our patient transport fleet are not affected by the recall in the UK.

The models affected by the potential problem with sticking or jamming accelerator pedals are the IQ, Aygo, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Avensis and Verso and the brake fault only concerns the latest Prius models, which we do not use.

Health Investor profiles Medical Services

Patient transport may not be a glamorous industry but it is a growing one for private firms says a headline in the latest issue of the Health Investor magazine which featured a profile on Medical Services.  Editor Vernon Baxter visited the company’s headquarters in London to interview Joe Sheehan, the company’s managing director. Read the full article.

People ....

Michael Duda and Tom Greenall have been appointed managers of Alperton and Warrington ambulance stations respectively and Steve Watkins promoted to assistant customer services manager at the company’s London HQ.