A private ambulance service that has contracts with the NHS and other private health organisations faces closure after going into administration.
Private Ambulance Service has been serving hospitals such as Watford General, St Albans hospital and Bedford hospital.
It also has a number of private contracts across Essex and London. The company runs 126 vehicles and employs 300 people.
The Inland Revenue lodged the winding-up notice and the case will go to the high court next month. The firm is expected to stop trading on 9 October.
In an email sent to staff on Friday, the managing director, James Barnes, said that Greenfield Recovery Limited had been instructed to put the company into administration.
He added: “Our commissioners are taking steps to ensure that the employment of staff within the service will be transferred to another service provider based on the current contracts on which they are engaged.”
The company had previously posted on its blog in July last year to assure staff and customers that it had not gone into administration after an article in the local paper claimed it had.
Speaking at the time, Barnes said: “We are still going as strong as always, with brand new vehicles on order to expand our ever-increasing fleet and continued employment opportunities.”
The company has proved controversial in recent moths. In July the Herts Advertiser reported that the Herts Valleys clinical commissioning group had issued an apology after ongoing problems with the performance of Private Ambulance Service, which left vulnerable patients stuck in hospitals or their homes for hours while waiting to be picked up.
A spokesman for the Bedfordshire, Luton and Hertfordshire clinical commissioning groups told the BBC: “The next step is for NHS clinical commissioning groups ... to appoint an organisation that can provide transport for our patients. We are in discussions with a number of providers to understand what services can be provided quickly and safely.”
The company’s collapse comes as data shows the NHS is spending almost £80m a year hiring private ambulances to answer 999 calls and take patients to hospital for appointments.
The Guardian reported earlier this month about the concerns this sparked with worries that ambulances supplied by profit-driven firms may provide a lower standard of care when compared with the NHS.
Dr Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, which represents A&E staff, said: “It is concerning that trusts are having to use part of their budget for private ambulances, and serves to highlight the current levels of demand emergency departments are facing.”
