St John Ambulance announce five-year lifesaving contract

A leading first aid organisation has announced the renewal of two five year emergency transport contracts to continue to transport and care for seriously ill children across the country.

During the past five years, St John Ambulance London (Prince of Wales's) District has worked in partnership with the Children's Acute Transport Service (CATS) and the South Thames Retrieval Service (STRS) to transport critically ill children throughout the South
East of England safely to hospital, performing around 2000 retrievals each year.

After being required to formally tender for the contract in competition with other healthcare providers - St John Ambulance London is delighted to announced that from April 2009*, the contracts with CATS and STRS will continue on another five year basis.

Bradleigh Sims, Paediatric Account Manager at St John Ambulance London, said:'We are absolutely thrilled to have won the contract with both CATS and STRS and are able to continue to provide this specialist transport service, which sees thousands of sick children transported safely to hospital each year.

'Our team consists of 16 expertly trained ambulance technicians and team leaders, proficient in blue-light driving and experienced in the transportation of paediatrics, who together work 24 hours a day 365 days per year.'

This service sees St John Ambulance in London work with CATS and the STRS to deliver the highest quality of paediatric intensive care transport across London, transferring paediatric patients from as far as Plymouth and Manchester, in some cases having sufferers airlifted to their destination. In the last five years, a team of highly skilled, full-time staff members have provided the care and transportation of over 10,000 acutely sick children in specialist vehicles, which are driven and maintained by the St John Ambulance London team.

'Having been asked to continue to provide this service in partnership with CATS and the STRS is a real testament to the hard working, professional and dedicated nature of these team members at St John Ambulance London.' added Mr Sims.

* The renewed contracts for the Children's Acute Transport Service (CATS) and the South Thames Retrieval Service (STRS) will come into effect on 1st April 2009 and 7th April 2009 respectively.