UNIONS today welcomed reports that a private ambulance firm

has pleaded with the NHS for cash so it can pay all its staff

the same.

Parkwood Healthcare, which ferries 500 patients a day to

hospital appointments in North Staffordshire, is said to have

asked the University Hospital of North Staffordshire for

£300,000 on top of its multi-million pound contract to put all

90 drivers and support staff on the same pay and

conditions.

The move comes on the eve of a meeting next week between

Parkwood chief executive Tony Hewitt and arbitration agency

ACAS to try and resolve the row which dates back a year.

The three-year contract - won from Staffordshire ambulance

service in 2006 - insisted that new and existing staff would

have comparable terms and conditions.

But the union, Unison, has been in dispute with the company

after it paid new staff less and offered them different working

conditions.

Drivers suspended industrial action at Christmas to allow

the issue to go to arbitration.

But, following intervention from a Government Minister, the

local NHS has now threatened legal action if the two-tier pay

system is not abolished.

Today, Unison regional officer Ray Salmon said: “We too have

heard reports that Parkwood has asked the hospital for a

further £300,000.

“As long as our members get the rates laid down by the

contract's code of practice and also receive back pay due to

them, we don't care where the money comes from.”

Hospital communications head Clare Craddock said: “We are

aware Parkwood are meeting with ACAS on Monday next week.

“It is in the interests of all parties that we do not

jeopardise any outcome from that meeting, and therefore we are

not able to comment further at this stage.”

But former Staffordshire ambulance service chief executive

Roger Thayne said he was not surprised Parkwood had had to ask

for more money.

He said: “Nobody could have provided the patient transport

service cheaper than us so the only way a private firm could

beat us on price had to be by paying staff less.

“Parkwood took a gamble that few staff would want to

transfer from us to them and so have the same pay guaranteed.

But more than they expected agreed to go over.

“My bigger concern is that lives have been put at risk

because Parkwood ambulances do not carry defibrillators (heart

start machines) while our fleet did.

“Whichever managers decided to pay more money for a service

which had a greater risk should not be paid by the NHS.”

It emerged in January that the Parkwood group was seeking

buyers for the contract which it said had made losses from day

one blaming “ongoing difficulties in the patient transport

business”.

No-one from Parkwood was available for comment today.

Should Parkwood be given the extra cash?