Private Ambulance and Secure Patient Transport in London

London has the densest concentration of mental health services in the country and some of the tightest bed pressure. A transfer that slips by two hours can cost a bed, and a patient waiting in an emergency department for conveyance is occupying a cubicle that four-hour performance is measured on.

Secure 24 works with NHS trusts, Integrated Care Boards, the Metropolitan Police, local authorities, private hospital groups and families across the capital, providing private ambulance services and specialist mental health conveyance around the clock.

Private Ambulance Service in London

A private ambulance covers the patient movement that sits outside 999: hospital discharges, transfers between sites, outpatient 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, so the vehicle and crew can be matched to that individual before anyone sets off.

In London that planning matters more than almost anywhere else. Journey times are unpredictable, hospital sites are difficult to access, and a patient who has already waited hours for a bed has little patience left for a transfer that arrives without a plan. Our control room builds the risk profile before dispatch and factors the route and the timing into it.

The fleet runs in three classes: a standard secure ambulance for most risk levels, a wheelchair-accessible variant for combined physical and mental health needs, and a Cell Secure Ambulance for the highest-risk journeys, which uses a Perspex-screened safe space rather than the barred Category B compartment much of the sector still relies on.

Mental Health Transport in London

This is the work Secure 24 was built around. Crews are recruited as secure technicians rather than general patient transport staff 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.

London’s bed pressure means patients are frequently admitted well outside the capital, and those long journeys are exactly where generalist transport struggles: an untrained crew, a vehicle with no alternative to prolonged seated restraint, and a route that takes 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 Across London

Under Right Care, Right Person, police forces including the Metropolitan Police have significantly 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 both planned warrant executions with an AMHP and the unplanned Section 136 detentions that arrive with no notice.

Ward Assist and Bedwatch in London

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 to keep someone settled, 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.

Patient Transport and Hospital Transport in London

Routine transfers are 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. In a system running at capacity, a transfer that slips by a day holds a bed an admission is waiting for, and that single delay travels straight back to the emergency department.

Why Specialist Transport Matters More Than the Vehicle Badge

Procurement increasingly bundles mental health transport into standard patient transport contracts. 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.

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

For a trust or an ICB, that last point is usually 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 asks for.

Care Home, Court and Prison Transfers in London

We move residents between care settings across the capital, 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 London

• NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards, through ad hoc bookings, service level agreements and procurement contracts. See our NHS sector page
• The Metropolitan 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 Greater London
• Courts, prisons and custody suites
• Families arranging transport privately for a relative

Private Ambulance Hire in London

Private ambulance hire usually means one of three arrangements, and it is worth being clear which one you actually need before asking for a price.

• Single transfer. One booked journey, priced as a job. Most family bookings and one-off hospital transfers work this way
• Standby or on-site cover. A vehicle and crew held at a location for a defined period, used for events, film and television production, and clinical settings that need cover on hand
• Contracted hire. A service level agreement or procurement contract giving a trust, ICB or hospital group prioritised access across an agreed volume

For NHS and ICB work in London, the third is almost always the right structure. Ad hoc booking is fine occasionally, but a trust moving patients weekly gets better response times and better continuity from an agreed arrangement, and the pricing reflects the predictability.

Secure Transport in London

Secure transport and private ambulance overlap but are not the same thing. Any CQC-registered provider can carry a patient. Secure transport specifically means the vehicle, crew and process are built to manage a person who may be detained, may attempt to abscond, or may present a risk to themselves or others during the journey.

That is the difference between a converted van with a locking rear door and a purpose-built vehicle with a Perspex-screened safe space, anti-finger-trap hinges, no ligature points, recording with audio and a crew trained in de-escalation. If a London trust is moving a detained patient, secure transport is the requirement even where the tender wording says patient transport.

Who Pays for a Private Ambulance in London?

Three routes cover almost all of it, and mixing them up is a common source of delay.

NHS commissioned. Where a trust, ICB or local authority has arranged the transfer, the cost sits with them and the patient pays nothing. This covers most Mental Health Act conveyance, inter-hospital transfers and discharge transport.

Private payment. A family or individual arranging transport directly pays for the job. Quotes are given before booking, and ours are all-inclusive rather than a base rate with additions.

Insurance. Some private medical insurance policies cover patient transport, and some travel and repatriation policies do. Cover is not universal and it varies by policy, so check with your insurer before booking rather than after. Where a policy does cover it, insurers generally want an invoice and a record of the clinical need, both of which we provide as standard.

Choosing a Private Ambulance Company in London

There are a lot of providers in the capital and the quality range is wide. Four checks separate them:

• The full CQC report, not just the rating. Registration is a legal minimum, not a benchmark
• Crew training, and specifically whether crews are trained for mental health work or trained in it as an afterthought
• The vehicle, seen in person. A walk-around tells you in two minutes what a brochure will not
• The audit trail. Ask what exists if a transfer is later questioned by a board, a coroner or an inspector

Our own answers to those are set out in what good looks like in secure ambulance standards.

Areas We Cover Across Greater London

Coverage runs across all London boroughs, north and south of the river, and outward into the Home Counties. Our base at East Grinstead and our operating strongholds across East Surrey and West Sussex mean South London, Croydon, Bromley, Sutton and the Surrey border are particularly well served, and we routinely run transfers between London hospitals and units elsewhere in the country.

Long-distance work is normal rather than exceptional here. London bed pressure means patients are frequently admitted well outside the capital, so a journey that starts in an emergency department in Zone 2 can finish several hours north.

How to Book a Private Ambulance in London

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

• Private Ambulance and Secure Patient Transport in Birmingham
• 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

London Private Ambulance FAQs