Safe Care

EMED Safe Care is the secure mental health care division of EMED Group. EMED Group was formed from the merger of ERS and E-Zec Medical to become the largest provider of Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services in the UK, operating across over 50 bases, with over 1,100 vehicles and over 2,800 staff. Safe Care provides bespoke, secure mental health transport by utilising our national infrastructure to deliver a truly localised service.

EMED Safe care provides complementary mental health services, including secure mental health transport as well as bed watch and companion services within clinical settings. Safe care also supports the right care, right person approach, operating secure transport solutions across a variety of community settings, including hospitals, A&Es, AMHPs, the police and prison services.

EMED Group has over 50 operational bases situated across England and Wales. Safe care utilises this nationwide infrastructure, enabling us to provide a much more cost-effective, bespoke, and localised secure transport service. We are equipped to assist with all journeys regardless of complexity or distance. We can provide you with timely assistance anywhere across England, Wales and Scotland.

Thanks to our 50-plus operational bases, we provide a truly localised service and can attend to any call out across Great Britain. Depending on your location, we aim to attend a call out within one hour. We are the only secure mental health transport provider that can offer this rapid and localised service.

Of course, Safe care can offer secure mental health transport in almost any setting, not just clinical and can collect patients from anywhere. We specialise in providing an immediate response to s.135 and s.136 journeys. As well as the more traditional transport to and from hospitals, we transport patients from prisons, police stations, secure mental health units, home addresses or even from the street itself. We provide the right care at the right time, regardless of location.

All Safe care crews are comprehensively trained in de-escalation techniques and restraint use. Training is aligned with the Mental Health Act and adheres to the Restraint Reduction Network standards. All training is refreshed annually. While our crews are highly qualified in restraint techniques, we only use these methods as an absolute last resort. The patient’s wellbeing is always foremost in our minds, and we take a conciliatory, holistic approach to de-escalate any situation wherever possible. Our crews excel at de-risking any patient journey which ensures that your staff can continue to focus on their own role, in their own setting and are not required to facilitate patient journeys.

EMED Group is fully registered with the CQC across all our patient transport contracts in England.

EMED Group deploys a modern fleet of over 1,100 vehicles nationwide. Safe care can offer you a range of secure transport vehicles for various settings, including full-size, Home Office approved, Category B secure cell area vehicles as required. Where patient mobility becomes a factor, we can also utilise vehicles from our non-emergency patient transport division to support wheelchair accessibility or the use of stretchers on board.

Our charges are based on the vehicle type, travel time and risk assessment identifying the number of Mental Health Care Assistants required to deliver a safe and high-quality experience. This creates an hourly rate for the journey and provides a clear and transparent pricing.

Yes, we can collect missing persons (including patients, AWOL etc.) from police stations and other community settings and transport them anywhere in the country.

Yes, as well as clinical settings, we can support police and prison services by responding to the call out, conducting risk assessments and taking the appropriate action, which frees up police time to focus on other priorities.