Private Ambulance and Secure Patient Transport in Birmingham

Birmingham is one of the two places Secure 24 operates from. That matters more than it sounds: a crew based in the West Midlands is not a crew dispatched from two hours away and arriving late to a transfer that was already time-critical.

We work with NHS trusts, Integrated Care Boards, West Midlands Police, local authorities, private hospital groups, care homes and families across the region, providing private ambulance services and specialist mental health conveyance for both planned and unplanned work.

Private Ambulance Service in Birmingham

A private ambulance covers the patient movement that sits outside 999: hospital discharges, transfers between sites, outpatient and dialysis journeys, care home moves, and conveyance for patients detained under the Mental Health Act. It is booked for a named person at an agreed time rather than dispatched against emergency triage, so the vehicle and the crew are matched to that individual before anyone sets off.

Our fleet runs in three classes. A standard secure ambulance covers most risk levels. A wheelchair-accessible variant handles combined physical and mental health needs. A Cell Secure Ambulance is used for the highest-risk journeys and uses a full-height reinforced Perspex screen rather than the barred Category B compartment much of the sector still relies on. Every vehicle carries 360 degree recording with audio, live tracking, full climate control and padded seating.

Mental Health Transport in Birmingham

This is the work Secure 24 was built around, and it is a different discipline from standard patient transport rather than a variation of it. Crews are recruited as secure technicians and train through a four-level progressive framework with our training partner RISKA, with ongoing monthly development, Basic Life Support refreshed every twelve months and enhanced DBS checks throughout.

Birmingham and Solihull carry significant mental health demand, and bed pressure means patients are frequently admitted outside the region. Those longer journeys are exactly where generalist transport struggles: an untrained crew, a vehicle offering no alternative to prolonged seated restraint, and a route measured in hours. Our secure ambulance crews plan against a risk profile built before departure and keep talking to the patient throughout.

Section 135 and Section 136 Support in the West Midlands

Under Right Care, Right Person, police forces including West Midlands Police have reduced their role in mental health response. That shift only works where something competent fills the gap.

We meet officers and Approved Mental Health Professionals at the scene, take over as soon as the scene is safe, convey the person to a place of safety, and complete the paperwork and handover. Our Section 135 and Section 136 support covers planned warrant executions with an AMHP as well as the unplanned Section 136 detentions that arrive with no notice at all.

Ward Assist and Bedwatch in Birmingham

Not every job is a journey. Where a patient cannot safely be left unsupervised on a ward, in an emergency department or in a prison healthcare unit, we provide ward assist and bedwatch cover on site. The model is active engagement rather than passive observation: conversation, board games, music and craft activity, on the principle that an incident prevented is worth more than an incident managed. Cover runs from a single overnight shift to long-term placements with managed crew rotation so the patient sees familiar faces.

Patient Transport and Hospital Transport in Birmingham

Routine transfers make up the largest share of the work: appointments and returns, moves between hospital sites for specialist input, and discharge transport that releases a bed. Our patient transport services cover formal and informal transfers for patients with mental health, mobility or complex needs, with wheelchair-accessible vehicles where required.

Discharge is where delay compounds fastest. A transfer that slips by a day holds a bed an admission is waiting for, and in a system running at capacity that single delay travels straight back to the emergency department.

Non-Emergency Patient Transport in Birmingham

Non-emergency patient transport covers the planned, repeating journeys that keep treatment on track: dialysis, chemotherapy, day surgery, outpatient clinics and hospital discharges. Vehicles are wheelchair accessible where needed and the service is door to door, which matters for patients who cannot manage the walk from a car park or a drop-off point.

Why Specialist Transport Matters More Than the Vehicle Badge

Procurement increasingly bundles mental health transport into standard patient transport contracts, and on paper that looks efficient. In practice it puts generalist crews with volume targets in front of patients they have not been trained to support, and the cost only shows up later.

Three things separate the disciplines. The risk assessment: a specialist provider profiles the person before allocating a crew, rather than sending the nearest available vehicle. Restraint: where a vehicle offers no safe alternative, containment becomes prolonged seated physical restraint for the length of the journey, which is neither therapeutic nor defensible if the transfer is later reviewed. And the audit trail: recording with audio, live tracking and complete handover paperwork mean a transfer can be reconstructed and accounted for.

For a trust or an ICB, that last point is often decisive. Transport is one of the few risks on a mental health pathway that can be closed off properly, and the evidence that it was closed off is what a board, a coroner or an inspector will ask for.

Care Home, Court and Prison Transfers Across the West Midlands

We move residents between care settings, often people living with dementia, where disorientation rather than distance is the clinical risk. We also carry out detainee transport for medical appointments, court hearings and transfers between secure facilities, working alongside HMPPS, court services and police forces, with ward assist available inside prison healthcare units.

Who We Support Across Birmingham

• NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards, through ad hoc bookings, service level agreements and procurement contracts. See our NHS sector page
• West Midlands Police, particularly for Right Care, Right Person handovers and Section 136 conveyance
• Private hospital groups needing discreet, confidential transfers
• Local authorities, including children’s services and CAMHS placements
• Care homes and hospices across the region
• Courts, prisons and custody suites
• Families arranging transport privately for a relative

How to Book a Private Ambulance in Birmingham

Booking starts with a call to the control room on 0330 320 1159, at any hour. Dispatch will ask who the patient is, where they are going, what has happened recently, and anything about the person that would change how a crew should approach them. That conversation is the risk assessment, and it sets crew size, whether a gender-matched crew is appropriate, which vehicle class is sent, and whether civilian clothes would be better than uniform.

Planned transfers benefit from as much notice as you can give. Urgent and unplanned bookings are taken around the clock, and capacity is held for them.

Related Reading

• What Is a Private Ambulance? What They Are Used For in the UK
• What Is a Mental Health Ambulance? How They Work in the UK
• Inside Our Secure Ambulances
• Secure Ambulance Standards in the UK: What Good Looks Like

Birmingham Private Ambulance FAQs