About us
VKL provides urgent and non-urgent 24/7 secure mental health transport for patients across England and Wales, Scotland, and to Europe. Because we are specialists in the conveyance of patients with mental health needs, our staff training, vehicles and equipment are designed specifically for this purpose.
Staff
We flexibly crew our ambulances based on patient needs – we do not take a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Our crews are skills matched and gender matched to the patients we support to ensure a patient-centred approach.
Our crews are all highly trained and can also include Registered Mental Health Nurses as well as Ambulance Care Assistants. The number of staff and the skill mix of the crew is tailored to the needs of the service user following a risk assessment. All staff undergo extensive training before taking on a patient-facing role, including Prevention and
Management of Violence and Aggression training, which is BILD ACT certified.
Ambulance Fleet
Our ambulances are adapted to support the safe and secure conveyance of patients. We offer a discreet service to protect the privacy and dignity of the individuals we support. Most of our ambulances are unmarked as discreet support is more important to VKL than marketing our service.
We allocate types of ambulance depending on individual patient’s needs:
● High secure – marked or covert ambulances with a secure cell or passenger cabin with seats for the service user and escorts
● Low secure – unmarked ambulances with conference seating for ease of communication and patient support. These vehicles are modified to be secure but discrete and more comfortable for adults or children that may be intimidated by a high-secure ambulance
● Wheelchair accessible vehicles – secure, accessible ambulances
Liaison
Our entire team supports the conveyance of a service user, including the administrative function. Our coordinators will discuss the needs of the service user and undertake a risk assessment so that we allocate the right vehicle, team, approach and time of travel. We are specifically trained to receive and scrutinise statutory papers and will review at the time of the conveyance. We will also liaise with the receiving hospital to ensure they are aware of our arrival, any issues experienced en-route and of any changes to the anticipated time of arrival. In addition, we will liaise with any third party travel operators around priority boarding and VIP access where possible.
We will also support court applications and our team are experienced in supporting applications to court for the conveyance of patients under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
