An MP has called on health managers to tear up a contract with a private ambulance company – rather than hand it more money.
Stoke-on-Trent North’s Joan Walley has pleaded with the head of the city’s NHS body to re-tender the work to ferry thousands of patients to hospital appointments.
The Labour MP stepped in after London-based NSL asked to renegotiate the £3 million-a-year deal just 11 months into a three-year contract.
The firm blamed “potential operating losses” caused by an unforeseen increase in demand for requesting more cash for the rest of the tender.
It has also denied claims it had put in a deliberately cheap price to beat off five rivals.
They included one from the West Midlands Ambulance Trust which ran the service for the previous four years.
Now Ms Walley has branded it “indefensible” if the contract is changed without re-tendering it.
Read the full story from The Stoke Sentinel here.
