Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the operation of externally managed patient transport to ensure that there is no diminution of service standards; and if he will make a statement.

Patient Transport Services (PTS) are commissioned and assessed locally by National Health Service clinical commissioning groups, which are responsible for the delivery of effective PTS.

The document, ‘Eligibility Criteria for Patient Transport Services (2007)’, published by the Department, sets out the patient eligibility criteria for PTS.

Data regarding complaints made about local PTS are not collected centrally.