THE fight to stop York's non-emergency ambulance service from being privatised has won backing from New York.

Last month, we reported how the Patient Transport Service, which ferries thousands of people to and from York Hospital, had been put out to tender.

Currently run by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, the move means it could be sold off to a private company - and at least 14 have already shown interest.

The threat of privatisation was branded deeply worrying by local ambulance union secretary Glen Gears, who said it could affect both patient care and staff jobs.

Now Patrick Bahnken, president of the uniformed EMTs (emergency medical technicians) and paramedics in New York, has written an open letter strongly urging York Hospital to keep patient transport in the public domain.

Mr Bahnken, who visited York's paramedics in 2004, said moves to privatise the service in New York had not been a success.

He wrote: "In New York city, we allowed such an experiment to go forward only to find that we had little control and even less knowledge over who would actually be operating these units.

"We found that none of the operators of these unregulated units were required to undergo the rigorous background investigations that government employees are required to comply with. Many times while operating at the scene of mass casualty incidents, these private contract personnel would refuse to obey orders of fire department officers.

"Rather than terminate the contract of these insubordinate persons, the contract agency would simply relocate the problem individual.

"Such insubordinate acts at the scene of great public emergencies are a threat to the public at large as well as other emergency responders operating at the scene."

Other problems included lack of training for private ambulance staff, said Mr Bahnken.

Now the New York ambulance service has started to move its patient transport back in house. "I strongly urge York Hospital to learn from our past mistakes and to keep the contract with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust," said Mr Bahnken.

Mr Gears is meeting York MP Hugh Bayley today to talk about his concerns on possible privatisation of patient transport.