Suffolk and North East Essex ICB is responsible for commissioning non-emergency patient transport services that take people requiring specialist support to and from hospital and other medical appointments.

East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust currently runs the service in north-east Essex, but in Suffolk a private company currently has the contract. Both contracts run out next March, says the union.

Unison claims the care board is pricing the ambulance service out of the new single contract combining both areas by refusing to pay enough to ensure staff get the same wages, holidays and sick pay as other NHS workers.

The ambulance trust has already told passenger transport staff it won't be bidding for the new contract as it stands, says the union.

Glenn Carrington, Unison East of England Ambulance Service branch chair, said: ‘The integrated care board has a golden opportunity to bring patient transport back into a single NHS contract, where staff are treated well and can treat patients properly, but instead board managers seem to want to do things on the cheap and drive down standards for staff and patients.

‘Any private provider would have to cut corners and slash staff wages and conditions to make the contract pay. If the care board is serious about delivering a quality service to patients, it needs to work with Unison and the ambulance service to come up with a contract that works for everyone.'

In response, a spokesman for NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, said: ‘During 2024, NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB sought to commission a single system-wide contract for a non-emergency patient transport service. This was to ensure all patients and communities across the system had the same level of access to the service. 

‘The ICB follows strict regulations which allow for the direct award of a contract to an existing provider, providing this does not breach the considerable change threshold. This particular contract did breach that threshold as it is significantly different, both in value and geographical span, to the existing contracts.  

‘To ensure fairness in its decision-making, the ICB initiated an open competition without any financial envelope restriction, which means we did not stipulate any maximum amount acceptable as a bid for the new contract. The process of choosing a provider from 1 April 2026 is still ongoing.'