Two major parts of £460m North West patient transport tender abandoned

A second attempt to procure non-emergency patient transport services across the North West has suffered another major setback after NHS commissioners abandoned two of the three regional contracts.

The Cheshire and Merseyside lot, worth about £160 million, was halted after an error was discovered in the financial information supplied to bidders. Commissioners said continuing could have compromised the fairness, transparency and integrity of the process.

A separate lot covering Lancashire, South Cumbria and North Cumbria was abandoned after no compliant bids were received. The remaining contract, covering Greater Manchester and the Glossop area of Derbyshire, is proceeding with HATS Group as the intended provider.

The wider procurement, valued at around £460 million, was intended to cover routine journeys to outpatient appointments, hospital discharges, short-notice bookings and time-critical transport for treatments such as dialysis and oncology. It follows an earlier North West procurement that was halted in 2025 after legal challenges exposed problems that had restricted effective competition.

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