Private hospital criticised for relying on NHS ambulance service to transfer patients

‘Despite numerous tragedies, nothing has been done’: David Rowland, director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, on transferring patients with acute needs from a private to an NHS facility such as Norfolk and Norwich university hospital. Photograph: David Burton/Alamy

A coroner has warned that a private hospital is relying on NHS ambulances to transport patients despite “being fully aware” of the pressures on the ambulance service and resulting delays.

The warning came at the end of an inquest into a patient who died after a 14-hour wait for an ambulance to transfer him from the private Spire hospital in Norwich to the NHS-run Norfolk and Norwich university hospital a few minutes’ drive away. The last two years have seen a succession of inquests relating to ambulance delays. But in the latest case Jacqueline Lake, senior coroner for Norfolk, expressed concerns over Spire hospital’s use of NHS ambulances when complications and emergencies mean its patients need NHS care.