Patient Transport

I am hoping the mods allow this to be published.

This week the ambulance service has quietly brought in new criteria for patient transport. My mother, who has always had patient transport, was politely told she doesn't qualify anymore.

She uses a walking stick and can only manage 20m max with increasing breathlessness and pain in her legs. She is about to start dialysis.

She rang her consultant's secretary this morning as our local hospital is 50 minutes away by car. The secretary said this was a new nationwide ruling because they don't have enough ambulances. She had been on the phone all morning with many patients who cannot get to their appointments this week.

I can only drive in my local area (1 mile) and even then it has to be on a day I feel able to do this safely which is once every 2-3 weeks..

As patient transport can only be booked 7 days in advance, I wanted to let people who use this service be forewarned when they ring up to book.

Awful!
I feel affected members should if they can manage to, let their MPs know about this stupid waste of the NHS appointments that are missed.
The only other transport option available in some areas is voluntary organisations.

Denby

Can I suggest that anyone who may be affected by this see what volunteer set ups may be available in their area, including those run by the NHS? There are a lot of them and as long as a person can travel in a car it may help.

We had patient transport booked for appointment beginning half of May, received a phone call it’s cancelled as the hospital hasn’t renewed the contract and does not intend to. I contacted NHS business I can use NHS low income scheme to reclaim my transport costs.

Hospital provided me with a list of voluntary transport providers, 4 of which didn’t cover my postcode! The only one that did has a shortage of volunteers and they had no availability at all for the week of my appointment. Ironically the hospital kept checking with me that I was still attending my appointment!!
I do wonder how many people we fail to attend appointments as the criteria for ambulance transport was already hard to qualify for.