NCRHA orders review of patient escort service over alleged gang threats

Al­le­ga­tions of gang af­fil­i­a­tion, in­tim­i­da­tion, ex­tor­tion and threats have prompt­ed a ma­jor shake-up at the North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NCRHA).

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the NCRHA said an in­ter­nal re­view un­cov­ered re­ports of bul­ly­ing and al­leged gang ac­tiv­i­ty with­in its Pa­tient Es­cort and Hos­pi­tal At­ten­dant Ser­vices, which em­ploys more than 400 peo­ple.

“The North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty has moved de­ci­sive­ly to re­form its Pa­tient Es­cort and Hos­pi­tal At­ten­dant Ser­vices af­ter in­her­it­ing an un­ac­cept­able break­down in re­cruit­ment stan­dards, ac­count­abil­i­ty, dis­ci­pline and man­age­ment over­sight un­der the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion,” the re­lease stat­ed.