The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust is now providing non-emergency patient transport in Bedfordshire, Luton and Hertfordshire, following the winding-up of ‘Private Ambulance Service’, the company which previously delivered this service.

Providing a high quality, safe service for our patients is our absolute priority. Together with the other CCGs in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, we have been working closely with the East of England Ambulance Service to ensure that services transfer over smoothly and to minimise disruption.

Feedback from patients and hospital staff suggests that the new service has been working well, with patients being collected on time to attend their outpatient appointments.

We will continue to monitor the service to check that patients’ needs are being met. Patients who wish to check their eligibility for transport or to book a journey should call 01603 481208. The contact centre is open every day from 8am-6pm, with an answer machine service operating outside of these hours.

A special joint committee of representatives from Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group and East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group yesterday announced a number of decisions about NHS services in the county.

The decisions, made at a three-hour meeting held in public, follow a 10-week public consultation on a series of proposals designed to make best use of the money and resources available to the local NHS and encourage people to live healthier lives, avoiding preventable illnesses. All proposals were debated in full and members of the public had the opportunity to make representations in front of the committee.

The changes are:

• Morbidly obese patients with a BMI over 40 will be required to reduce their weight by at least 15% before accessing non‐urgent surgery and for those with a BMI of over 30, we are looking for a reduction of 10%. These criteria will apply unless waiting for surgery would be more harmful.
• Smokers will be required to quit smoking before being referred for non‐urgent surgery, unless waiting for surgery would be more harmful for them.
• Gluten- free food will no longer be available on prescription, with the exception of those patients with learning disabilities or where there are welfare concerns.
• In future, people wanting a prescription for medicines, products and food items that are available to buy from pharmacies, supermarkets or shops for short-term conditions will need to purchase them directly, except in exceptional circumstances.
• Female sterilisation will only be funded in exceptional circumstances, which would be assessed on a case‐by‐case basis if alternative forms of long‐acting contraception are unsuitable.
• IVF and other specialist fertility treatments will no longer be funded, except in exceptional circumstances. This decision will be reviewed after one year, in the light of the financial position Herts Valleys finds itself in at that time.
• A proposal to stop funding for vasectomies was rejected on the basis that this would not be cost-effective when the long-term cost of contraceptive services is taken into account.