Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services
Purpose of this work
The purpose of this work was to hear from local people and understand their experiences of using non-emergency patient transport services in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES).
What did we hear?
At the public meeting in Saltford in July 2018, we heard that access to non-emergency patient transport services was becoming more difficult for local residents, with some reports that people had been denied transport to hospital appointments despite having used the service before. Prior to the meeting, we had received five phone calls from local residents stating similar experiences.
Having heard from local residents, voluntary sector partners and Arriva, our Executive Board agreed that they wanted to find out more about people’s experiences of accessing hospital/ medical appointments in B&NES, including how they go about doing this, what barriers they face and how they are trying to overcome them.
What did we do?
- We worked in partnership with SWAN Transport to hold a public meeting focusing on this subject, which took place on 27 February 2019 at Radstock Methodist Church Hall.
- SWAN Transport and other voluntary sector colleagues helped to promote the meeting to local residents, particularly those living in rural communities where access to services is already a recognised issue.
- The public meeting was run by our volunteers. In order to encourage people to share their experiences, it was agreed that all comments would be recorded anonymously. Volunteers’ notes of the discussion were collated and shared with SWAN Transport and other community transport schemes in B&NES before being compiled into this report.
To find out what people told us and the recommendations we have made, read our final report.
Downloads
If you need this report in a different format, please email info@healthwatchbathnes.co.uk or call 01225 232 401.
