Ambulance driver Shaun Harvey and the rest of G4S patient-transport staff at University College Hospital in central London are moving up to 40 coronavirus patients around the city every day. Yet despite their key role they fear falling ill with the virus because they get only the bare minimum of sick pay.
“We are helping the NHS and the country, but if we get sick, we don’t get full pay and even stand to lose our bonuses,” says Harvey (not his real name) before the start of another demanding 12-hour shift. “I can’t survive on £94.25 statutory sick pay a week. It’s barely enough to pay the rent. I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills or buy food. It would leave me with absolutely nothing.”
Harvey is just one of the low-paid ambulance drivers who are risking their health and financial security to care for Covid-19 patients. About half the NHS’s patient-transport services are run by private firms, with drivers typically paid just above the minimum wage and entitled only to statutory sick pay. Many of these providers are asking their staff to help over-stretched NHS trusts transport Covid-19 patients into hospital and between wards.
Lola McEvoy from the GMB union, which represents patient-transport staff, says that thousands of low-paid drivers are now being drafted in to support the fight against Covid-19 but face financial ruin if they contract the virus themselves. “Many of these drivers are now in the front line,” she says. “They have the skills to help ease pressure on the NHS and the emergency ambulance service at this critical moment. Yet private patient-transport firms expect them to survive on just £94.25 a week if they need to self-isolate, which they just cannot afford to do.”
Harvey, who earns £8.80 an hour, lives with his mother, who is in poor health. “My mum is very sick,” he says. “It is scary, because you don’t know what you are getting into when you are picking patients up.”
Drivers who are forced to self-isolate face impossible choices. Kevin Evans, who works for a different private provider in Essex, has had to use what remains of his holiday to cover his living expenses while he stays at home for 14 days. “I work with vulnerable people, so I couldn’t take the risk of going into work when my son developed symptoms. I asked if I could take it as holiday because my rent alone is more than statutory sick pay,” says Evans (not his real name).
Evans, who earns £9 an hour, has volunteered to transfer Covid-19 patients when he returns to work, but worries that he doesn’t have sufficient holiday remaining if he needs self-isolate again. “I’m concerned that if I got ill, it would be a struggle.”
Public sector consultant Richard Bourne, who has examined the privatisation of ambulance services for the trade union Unison, says that many of the firms running patient-transport services have won NHS contracts by undercutting traditional ambulance services, which have higher overheads and stronger compliance regimes. “Some providers are reputable, but some treat their staff very badly and cut corners,” he says. “Privatisation has led to the fragmentation of a vital clinical service, which this pandemic shows is much more than a taxi service.”
G4S says that its sick-pay policy is in line with guidance from Acas and the government. Russell Hobbs, managing director of G4S patient transport services, said: “Our staff are aware and prepared that they could be asked to fulfil different journeys to normal in emergency circumstances.” He added that staff were given full personal protective equipment before coming into close contact with any suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19.
