Patient Transport issues at City Hall

This morning I was at a meeting of the Transport Committee of the London Assembly and was attending as the Vice Chair of the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum. I was not on the panel giving evidence to the Transport Committee, although Nic Daw, the manager of Patient Transport Services at the London Ambulance NHS Trust was. The discussion was around the possibility of joining up all of London's various forms of transport for older and disabled people (Door to Door transport) under one telephone number and one central management, so to speak, so that instead of contacting a range of operators for various services, people could call one centre. The problems of Patient Transport are well known to me, both as a former Director of Transport for All and also as a health activist.

Nic Daw stated that London Ambulance Service now only runs 15% of patient transport contracts across London. The other contracts are run by a variety of operators, including some minicab companies. I was there to raise the issue of standards for Patient Transport in London, which is a joint demand of the Patients Forum and a variety of other organisations across the capital. Also I wanted to raise the issue of who will pay for the transport of patients to and from Polyclinics. This is a big issue, as currently the NHS (in the shape of hospital trusts) pays for transport to and from hospital appointments for those considered in clinical need. But London Councils and Transport for London pays for Dial a Ride and Taxicard to bring people, who are considered eligible, to and from appointments with GPs, dentists etc. With Polyclinics gradually replacing the role of A&E departments for many patients, the hospitals are hoping not to have to pay the transport costs. This would then be shifted on to Taxicard and Dial a Ride but there are already problems with users of Taxicard not having a sufficient number of trips on their cards and Dial a Ride being an unreliable service - as we heard in some detail today with a number of shocking peronal stories.

The representative of London Councils suggested that they are looking at the possibility of one system of eligibility for all these services - meaning that those entitled to Dial a Ride or Taxicard would also automatically be entitled to Patient Transport. But a Board member of Transport for London stated that it would be years before a new integrated system of transport could be agreed. This could well be the case but it is about time that transport providers looked at the case for joined up transport and above all, joined up thinking on this issue.

In the interim, it is vital that the set of common standards for Patient Transport across London are adopted and  I will continue my campaign for that, along with the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum. The current shoddy and unsafe way in which many patients are transported to non-emergency  hospital appointments is simply not fit for purpose.

Those demands are here

http://greenmpforvauxhall.blogspot.com/2010/02/patient-transport-service-standards.html