Verivius for secure patient transport

Independent providers commissioned by mental-health hospitals (NHS trusts and independent hospitals) to convey patients who are detained under the Mental Health Act, lack capacity, or have a learning disability, autism, dementia or fluctuating mental state. The cohort is vulnerable, the legal basis for each journey is load-bearing, and the records inspectors look at are different from a routine non-emergency patient transport job.

The sector covers planned MHA conveyances, place-of-safety transfers under s135 warrant or s136 police powers, mental-health hospital-to-hospital transfers, conditional discharge and CTO-recall conveyances, and court-mandated transport. It is a refinement of the broader independent ambulance and PTS sector with deeper coverage of the vulnerable-patient layer.

The pack covers in-scope regulated activity only: purpose-built ambulance-style vehicles. Saloon cars and people carriers, which some commissioners ask for as the less restrictive option, sit outside CQC inspectability but the platform lets you record those journeys alongside so the operational picture is complete.

Secure patient transport is inspected under the CQC independent-ambulance strand against the five key questions. The evidence weight differs from a routine ambulance job: more inspector attention on restraint decisions (least-restrictive practice, proportionality, de-escalation tried first, debrief), on the legal basis for each conveyance (MHA section cited, MCA best-interest decision recorded where capacity is absent), on the journey-specific risk assessment, and on board-level oversight of restrictive practice including whether any protected-characteristic group is disproportionately affected.

Statutory layer: Mental Health Act 1983 (sections 135 and 136 set the place-of-safety detention regime; the statutory maximum is 24 hours, extendable by up to 12 hours under s136B for a total of 36 hours, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017 ss80 and 81 in force 11 December 2017; the pre-2017 72-hour maximum no longer applies); Mental Capacity Act 2005 including the best-interest framework; Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 Fundamental Standards.

Operational layer: the Right Care Right Person national partnership agreement (published July 2023, signed by the Home Office, DHSC, NPCC, APCC, NHS England and the College of Policing) shapes when police and when healthcare partners respond to mental-health incidents. Commissioned providers operate within that protocol.

The pack is the secure-transport-specific content that comes pre-loaded into your account on top of the core Verivius platform. It includes:

• MHA conveyance events recorded as incidents, categorised as a conveyance event or a section 136 transfer, with the legal basis (detained, s135 warrant, s136 police power, CTO recall, conditional-discharge recall, guardianship, court order) and narrative captured on the record.
• Restraint use recorded as an incident, covering physical, mechanical and chemical (rapid tranquilisation), with the proportionality justification captured on the record. A monthly restraint-reduction review is scheduled on the assurance calendar, including the protected-characteristic check.
• RRN-compliant training tracked per crew member. Any crew member whose Restraint Reduction Network certification is missing or expired shows as a gap in the training matrix.
• Pre-journey risk assessments attached to each conveyance as evidence, covering transport method, staffing numbers, medication needs, comfort and sustenance breaks, contact arrangements, physical-health needs and an absconding-risk grade. A missing or out-of-date assessment is captured as an incident.
• Sociable-hours planning: a conveyance scheduled outside the sociable-hours window your service sets (8am to 8pm by default) is flagged for review, so an out-of-hours journey is a deliberate decision rather than an oversight.
• Caged-vehicle use recorded as an incident whenever a secure compartment is used, with the proportionality justification captured on the record and sampled in the quarterly restrictive-practice audit.
• s135 and s136 transfer records. The concordat position (ambulance not police vehicle save exceptional circumstances) and the 24-hour place-of-safety statutory window are recorded on the record and sampled in the quarterly restrictive-practice audit.
• In-transport records: any rapid tranquilisation administered, any absconding event, and any safeguarding concern raised during transport is each captured as an incident record.
• Commissioning-contract governance as a first-class object: performance metrics, monitoring cadence, remedial actions on shortfall. Contract metrics feed the monthly digest alongside the restraint-reduction review.
• Mock Inspection methodology adapted for the restrictive-practice evidence categories.

The secure patient transport pack is live, built on the broader ambulance pack. The MHA conveyance categories (s135 warrant, s136 place-of-safety, CTO recall, court order), restraint and caged-vehicle use records, absconding-event recording, journey risk-assessment gap-capture, and the s135 / s136 statutory window (24 hours at the place of safety, extendable by up to 12 hours under s136B per the Policing and Crime Act 2017, in force 11 December 2017) are all populated and verified against primary regulatory sources. You can sign up directly and have the secure patient transport content loaded into your account from day one.

If you run an independent secure patient transport service and want to take a look before signing up, get in touch using the form below.