Complaints following the change of operator for the patient transfer service have begun to drop off, says Health Minister Kate Beecroft.

There were strong protests earlier this year, after the Department of Health and Social Care awarded the contract, to transfer patients from ports and airports to hospitals in the UK, to ComCab, replacing previous operator Bridgewater.

Mrs Beecroft told Tynwald: ’The department has seen a decrease in the numbers of complaints being received.

’In weeks one and two, 16 complaints were received, equating to 1.32 per cent of the people travelling. In weeks seven and eight, only seven complaints were received, or 0.6 per cent of people travelling.

’It was on this basis that I was able to support a recommendation that the contract be continued beyond the probation period.’

But those statistics were greeted with scepticism by David Ashford (Douglas North), who has been a vociferous critic of the quality of service since the switch

’Can I ask the minister to go back to her department and check whether all complaints are being treated as complaints and not purely feedback?’ he said. ’The figures she has given there do not tally with the number of people I know who have actually complained to the department.

’When you have got patients who are basically falling out of taxis having to be picked up by their escort, would she accept that is not an acceptable service?

But the minister said the patient fall was a ’one-off’ and she was not sure it was due to the type of vehicle used, as she said Mr Ashford was suggesting.

Earlier, Mrs Beecroft outlined the criteria used to decide the probation period of the contract had been completed successfully.

’During the first three months of the new patient transfer contract with ComCab, the department closely monitored the performance of the service provider,’ she said.

’This took the form of encouraging direct customer feedback, the monitoring of an independent Facebook patient transfers page, and surveys of customers who use the service in the first weeks of implementation and then again in weeks seven and eight.’

Improvements implemented already included route changes to reduce the amount of speed bumps travelled over, additional information provided by the customer to ensure the ’most appropriate’ vehicle was used and improved communications.

Mr Ashford challenged a previous assertion that the company had a range of vehicles, including a minibus.

’Can I ask why, then, patient transfer has signed a piece of paper from someone who was trying to book a minibus, saying that they do not have them?’ he said.

Mrs Beecroft asked him to provide further details and pledged to investigate.