Refund of Fares For Hospital Treatment/Appointment

calcotti

Lanzarote1938 said:

I believe we are thinking of two entirely different scenarios. Your's is for reimbursement of travel costs for those on mcertain means tested benefits. I am mentioning free hospital transport either by ambulance or volunteer drivers. My husband gets the latter as he imeets their eligibility criteria. He is not in receipt of any means tested benefits or any mobility payments.

We are indeed talking about two different things. As OP’s original topic was about reimbursement of costs I thought that is what you were referring to but going back to your original post I see that you did refer to hospital transport. Apologies.

ripplyuk

This varies hugely across the U.K., so it’s not always possible to get taxi fares refunded. I live in Northern Ireland in a rural area and there are no buses, trains etc. Due to health problems, I have times were I cannot walk unaided. I’ve had to cancel multiple hospital appointments as I simply couldn’t get there. They only offer a ‘standard’ public transport fare refund of around £12. They don’t care that there is no public transport here and I wouldn’t be able to use it alone anyway. The community transport service will only go to a specific small area. The patient transport service refused to help as I could get a taxi, but I was refused a refund for taxis (which I requested in advance). My GP said it wasn’t his problem. The hospitals were clearly annoyed that I even asked. One just hung up on me. I even asked the Red Cross for help but they only offer volunteer drivers in the city. I ended up making an official complaint to the health service but their response was basically ‘there’s no help available’. 

For those who think travel refunds are a ‘waste’ of NHS money, I can say with certainty that my health problems will now cost the NHS significantly more money than if I had been able to get treatment quickly at those appointments.