Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Non-Emergency Patient Transport Staff Information

EMED Patient Care will be providing non-emergency patient transport (NEPTS) and renal patient transport services across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB including the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) from 1st July 2024.

EMED Patient Care is taking over the current contract from the Health Transportation Group (HTG). The new contract is due to run from 1st June 2024 to 30th July 2029 with an option to extend up to five years.

The commissioning organisation for this service is Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB. Please note, EMED Patient Care is the sole provider of patient transport services, no additional private ambulance provision should be used.

EMED Patient Care will provide the patient transport service. EMED Patient Care is a division of EMED Group, one of the UK’s leading health and social care transport providers. As a trusted partner to the NHS and Local Authorities across over 70 contracts, EMED Group delivers over 1.5 million patient journeys every year.

EMED Group has over 2,800 colleagues across the country and deploys a fleet of over 1,100 specialised vehicles. It also has a dedicated national healthcare call centre.

The service will be delivered from the following locations:

Thurmaston
Unit 20,
Pinfold Road,
Thurmaston,
Leicester,
LE4 8AT

Loughborough
Unit 28,
Kernan Drive,
Loughborough,
LE11 5JF

Kibworth
Unit D1,
Beauchamp Business Park,
Wistow Road,
Kibworth,
LE8 ORX

Patients can access this service by booking through the EMED Patient Care Transport Booking Office freephone on 0300 777 1800. Bookings can be made via their healthcare professional, carer, escort, or by the patient themselves. Patients can also book via the Patient Zone if it is not their first journey. Patients can find more information on their dedicated information page at www.emedgroup.co.uk/leicestershire/.

You can make a booking for a patient either by calling the EMED Patient Care Transport Booking Office freephone on 0300 777 1800 or by using the online booking portal. Access to the portal is restricted to healthcare professionals who frequently need to book patient transport.

If you need to create a user account for the booking portal, please submit an email to support@emedgroup.co.uk, including your name, email address, hospital name, job title, department/clinic, and line manager. Upon receipt of this information, your account will be created, and you will receive a welcome email containing your login details.

The new NEPT service provided by EMED, which is going live on the 1st of July 2024 covers Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB patients only. The arrangements for patients registered with a GP outside of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland have not changed, and bookings should continue to be made via the existing booking process of the respective providers.

Patients who are registered with a GP in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough or Royston, providing they meet the eligibility criteria as outlined by NHS England.

In short, a patient may be eligible for non-emergency patient transport if:

• They have a medical need for transport.
• They have a cognitive or sensory impairment requiring the oversight of a member of specialist or non-specialist patient transport staff or a suitably trained driver.
• They have a significant mobility need that means they are unable to make their own way with relatives/friends and/or escorts/carers, whether by private transport, public transport or a taxi.
• They are travelling to or returning from in-centre haemodialysis, in which case specialist transport, non-specialist transport or upfront/reimbursement costs for private travel will be made available.
• A safeguarding concern has been raised by any relevant professional involved in a patient’s life, in relation to the patient travelling independently.
• They have wider mobility or medical needs that have resulted in treatment or discharge being missed or severely delayed.

For more information about patient eligibility, please review the guidelines provided by NHS England.

If you would like more information about this service, you can call the EMED Patient Care Transport booking office freephone or use the contact form at the bottom of this page to get in touch.