IT’S A bit like pulling at the loose thread of a woolly jumper.

Bit by bit it begins to unravel. Such is the case with Sussex’s patient transport service.

The Argus has been asking questions about it since the service was removed from public control and handed to private company Coperforma this year.

We have documented the opaque way the service has been carved up with the company subcontracting the actual ambulance service out to a myriad of companies.

We now know that the health service watchdog which is supposed to oversee this process did not know which of these subcontractors actually had a licence to operate.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) appeared dozy at best and has belatedly launched an investigation into the case.

But that is not all. The group responsible for awarding Coperforma the contract, one of several GP-led groups in Sussex which buy services on our behalf, appeared to have washed its hands of the case once the contract had been awarded. The Argus found answers about its role very difficult to come by.

Indeed between this group, Coperforma and the CQC there appears to be a complex game of pass the blame parcel going on.

Now the scandal has reached Parliament with the Department of Health being forced to admit it may have misled MPs in an answer to them on the case.

The truth is that the “inner market” in the NHS is simply not working here and yet is still paying out handsome rewards to both the private sector and those who serve on these misfiring bodies. The thread keeps unspooling.