ELIGIBLE patients from the Okehampton area who need help with transport to hospital should benefit from a service extending its hours later this year.

In May 2012, qualified organisations were invited to tender for a five-year contract to coordinate all non-emergency patient transport services.

NSL Ltd was awarded the contract to run patient transport services in northern and eastern Devon. NSL is to take over the service from the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT).

The trust will continue to deliver the service until September 2013.

As part of the contract specification, the service must run from 7am to 9pm seven days a week, an extension of the 9am to 5pm service offered from Monday to Friday.

Some patient groups, such as renal, oncology and out of area patients, will have the option of accessing services outside the 7am to 9pm time where required.

Rebecca Harriott, chief officer for Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said: 'We wanted to ensure that patients in Northern and Eastern Devon have access to quality non-emergency patient transport services across a greater range of sites and times than previously provided.

'We have listened to our patients who use the transport service, as well as our healthcare providers, to find out what works best for them.

'Rather than only offering a service from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, patients will now get the same level of service but over greatly extended hours which now include weekends and bank holidays.

'We also took into account aspects such as patient safety and experience, quality, staff training, and respect and dignity.'

The transfer of non-emergency patient transport services to a new provider will not impact on accident and emergency services currently provided by SWASFT as these are separate services. SWASFT will also run Devon's NHS 111 service which is due to launch during June.