PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(13 April 2026)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services eligibility criteria on access to transplant services for patients with chronic kidney disease required to travel outside local Integrated Care Board areas.

Asked by:
Richard Tice (Reform UK)

Non-Emergency Patient Transport Schemes (NEPTS) often provide funded transport where a medical condition means that a patient would struggle to safely attend their treatment independently.  NEPTS can be provided by ambulance trusts or other providers depending on local arrangements.

In May 2022, NHS England set out eligibility criteria, which includes disability criteria, available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/B1244-nepts-eligibility-criteria.pdf

NHS England has worked closely with a range of kidney patient groups, renal professionals, integrated care boards (ICBs), and other stakeholders to develop a dialysis transport support framework which has been made directly available to ICBs. The 2022 updates to the eligibility criteria included where patients are travelling to or returning from in-centre haemodialysis, in which case specialist transport, non-specialist transport, or upfront/reimbursement costs for private travel will be made available.

NEPTS in England is an operational matter for the National Health Service, and how the NEPTS guidance is implemented at a local level is determined by ICBs and their partners, including local ambulance trusts. There are no current plans to update the eligibility criteria further.

Answered by:
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