MYSTERY "shoppers" could be used to monitor the way a patient transport system in Nottingham is run.

East Midlands Ambulance Service has been criticised for failing to get people to and from hospital appointments in the city on time.

Councillors at a meeting of the Notts Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee said the service now needed to be made accountable for its poor service.

City councillor Ginny Klein said: "A big problem is there is no competition out there. They can get away with giving a poor service."

Councillors referred to personal experiences and those of people in their wards when discussing the service.

Suggestions for improving the service included using mystery shoppers, who would review the service they receive.

Other ideas included inviting Emas board members to a scrutiny meeting to answer questions, and including a method of monitoring the service in its contract.

Chairman of the committee, county councillor Chris Winterton, said: "Some [patients] don't complain as they are so grateful they have somebody to pick them up.

"We need to ask the commissioners of the service to talk to performance management.

"These things ought to be worked into a contract so that it is fit for purpose."

Emas has the contract for transporting non-emergency patients across the East Midlands and is responsible for thousands of patients a week in Notts.

The majority would otherwise be unable to get themselves to and from hospital.

The Post reported in March that the city's patient transport service only gets 37% of patients to the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital within 30 minutes of appointments.

Emas was set a target of 95% when it took on the contract in 2007.

Broxtowe borough and county councillor Brian Wombwell said: "The organisation is totally dysfunctional. I think we need to be really tough."

A spokesman for Emas said: "Each year, we provide over 320,000 journeys to Notts patients and in a recent EMAS-wide independent survey, the overwhelming majority said they were very satisfied with the service and quality of care provided."

Emas was always keen to improve its performance and would be working closely with the hospitals using the service, he said, adding: "This will allow us to identify how we can jointly achieve better performance levels and make sure that the targets are relevant to the needs of patients.

"For example, the OSC raised questions about Emas delivering patients after their appointment time.

"At present, if we deliver a patient to hospital 16 minutes before their appointment this is also classed as being outside the performance standard.

"However, we know that patients would much rather be a few minutes early – rather than just one minute late.

"We look forward to demonstrating to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that we have achieved real improvements in the quality of service."

He added that Emas is interested in hearing any suggestions from the scrutiny committee.

tanya.holden@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk