North Staffordshire PCT, Stoke-on-Trent PCT and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust have commissioned a provider to deliver Non-emergency Patient Transport Services (including High Dependency). The Patient Transport Service (PTS) is a non-emergency transportation service for patients whose condition is not considered an emergency. The purpose of the service is to transport eligible patients between the patient's homes, hospitals, community settings or other treatment facilities including private treatment centres for patients referred for NHS treatments, consultations or procedures. Key strategic objectives of the procurement and subsequently delivered service are to:

— Improve equity of access through consistent and appropriate application of eligibility criteria to match patient needs of PTS service delivery.

— Manage demand through eligibility criteria, and reduction of inappropriate use of PTS.

— Improve value for money of the commissioned services whilst maintaining fitness for purpose and minimising risk.

— Improve service quality by: Delivering appropriate and flexible transport with supporting clinical expertise to service planned and ad-hoc care and transport needs.

— Provide an easy, accessible and robust booking process for PTS. The Provider shall be solely responsible for the optimisation of its operations (e.g. vehicle scheduling, staffing, asset deployment, investment) to deliver the defined service according to the required performance standards.