Can’t afford to travel to hospital appointments

In rural Scottish areas the NHS pays patients' expenses for hospital visits. There are two bands of payments, dependent on location and hospital. There are also various organisations which provide transport.

The major hospitals here are 100 miles away (£70.00), smaller one 40 miles away (£40.00) with the local one 8 miles and no reimbursement.

The NHS has claim forms to reimburse expenses.

To the OP...it's worth a phone call to the hospital concerned, perhaps the transport section? I hope something can be worked out for you.

suki1964 wrote: »

Yes Im North Antrim, The Causeway area

I found this Number for community transport, give them a ring, they may be able to help or at least pass you on to someone who can
0845 650 1190

As Ripleyuk said, community transport will not operate outside their own area and only provide hospital transport to local hospitals within their area

Given the ban on usage of premium rate 084/087 numbers (which now cost up to 65p/71p per minute) for many things, including public services and health services, that number is no longer in service.

unforeseen wrote: »

That information doesn't apply in this case. The number does not perform a function that is disallowed. It is not a public service, customer service or even health service. It is an information line which is still allowed.

In any case 0845 (unlike 0844) is included free in most mobile packages and at worst, from a landline, would be the same price as a local call.

Undervalued wrote: »

In any case 0845 (unlike 0844) is included free in most mobile packages and at worst, from a landline, would be the same price as a local call.

Given that all 084, 087 and 09 numbers are premium rate with an additional Service Charge paid to the benefit of the called party and their telecoms provider, there are no mobile providers that include calls to these numbers in standard allowances. Inclusive allowances cover landline numbers starting 01 and 02, non-geographic numbers starting 03, and, in most cases, mobile numbers starting 071 to 075 and 077 to 079. Calls to numbers starting 080 are free-to-caller.

Call charges from landlines to 0845 numbers do not "cost the same as a local call" (nor do calls to 0870 numbers cost the same as a "national" call). Those arrangements came to an end near the beginning of 2004 - some fourteen and a half years ago - as did the price distinction between a "national" call to a distant 01 or 02 number and a "local" call to a nearby 01 or 02 number. Both Ofcom and ASA issued a note in September 2005 all about the false claims made about 0845 and 0870 call charges. To this day, however, there are still a number of advertisers that continue to make these false claims, so it is not hard to understand why so many people still believe these things to be true.

On 1 July 2015 the call charges for 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers changed again. They are now split into two separate components thus making clear how much the caller's phone provider is charging for the call to be made (the Access Charge), and how much additional, or premium, Service Charge is added by the called party.

In 2007, Ofcom introduced 03 numbers. Calls to 03 numbers are inclusive in allowances on landlines and mobiles on the same basis as calls to 01 and 02 numbers. Where the caller has exceeded their allowance, or does not have an inclusive allowance, calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers are charged at "geographic rate". The charges for calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers are set entirely by the caller's phone provider and revenue sharing is not permitted.

Numbers starting 034 and 037 are set aside for existing users of the exactly matching 084 or 087 numbers to migrate. The initial "08" changes to "03" and the remaining digits of the number stay the same. Vast numbers of organisations and businesses have since made this change, not least because of regulations from BIS and the FCA, guidance from the Cabinet Office, and regulations from the Department of Health collectively banning usage of 084 and 087 numbers for most purposes.

In Wales, Traveline is a free-to-caller 0800 number.
https://www.traveline.cymru/news/2016/09/29/traveline-cymru-introduces-freephone-0800-telephone-number/

Previously it was on an inclusive 0300 number.
https://www.traveline.cymru/news/2016/04/01/traveline-cymru-introduces-cheaper-0300-telephone-number/

Usage of a premium rate 0871 number elsewhere is a disgrace, and is one of a small number of public service phone numbers that has slipped through the net (another being NHS Direct Wales which still uses 0845 46 47 more than four years after the same 0845 number was scrapped in England).