An ambulance trust is set to "help thousands of patients locally" with new transportation services.

The East of England Ambulance Trust have announced that following a competitive tender process, which was carried out by West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, they were found to be best placed to run the service for patients.

The service, which is set to see the trust undertake more than 42,000 additional patient journeys a year in West Essex, will provide healthcare transportation in specialist vehicles for the elderly, disabled, frail or those with mobility or medical needs from May 1.

Those who are mobile and able to sit comfortably in a standard car will also be eligable for the service and will be transferred by volunteer drivers, known as the Ambulance Car Service.

Toni Coles from West Essex CCG said: “Our aim is to make sure that people who need help getting from home to their place of care get the best possible patient transport service.

!It’s not just about getting from A to B though; it’s also about making sure they can book their journey easily, the transport turns up in a timely fashion and provides patients with a positive experience from door to door."

Head of Non-Emergency Services Liz McEwan said: “I am really pleased that we have won this contract and will be running the service in west Essex for patients in the local community.

"We know that our patients really appreciate the work of our staff and the services we run, which is shown time after time in our excellent patient satisfaction survey results and we look forward to taking on this opportunity in west Essex.

"Our service is home to home and drivers become a regular part of someone’s life

"Each journey can be stressful for the patient, irrespective of the number of times they visit hospital.

"Many may be making their first visit to hospital for many years - so a friendly face and understanding attitude will always put them at ease."