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Adam Symons News
Patient Transport in chaos
Councillor demands action
Monday 21st January 2008
Local
Councillor Adam Symons, and Lead Member for Health at Torridge District Council,
has demanded answers as to why patient transport to hospitals is in such chaos.
Since June
last year, local hospitals transferred the undertaking of one-off non-emergency
hospital journeys to local community transport associations such as Torridge
Community Transport Association (TCTA). However, since then, TCTA have struggled
to deal with the increase in journey numbers, and the local hospitals, covered
by the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust, have said there is no more money.
The fallout of
this is that the most vulnerable patients may struggle to get to appointments
and routine check-ups, impacting on long-term health care.
Duncan
Goodman, of TCTA said, “TCTA were asked by North Devon District Hospital (NDDH)
to fill the gap left by the scaling-down of the Voluntary Ambulance Car Service
(VACS) in our area. We are now very frustrated by the lack of financial support
from NDDH. TCTA has subsidised NDDH by diverting funding intended for other
purposes, which it can ill-afford to do.”
In trying to
find a solution to the problem, Adam has written to the board of NHS South West
asking why this problem is continuing.
He said, “I
asked them if someone would please get a grip of this and bang heads together?
We have a Devon-wide Compact with determines how the public sector works with
the not-for-profit sector, but this does not seem to be being followed. The
various organisations need to sit down at the table, and openly discuss costs
and options. In the end, it’s the patient who suffers.”
Adam has also
written to the Northern Devon Health Trust under the Freedom of Information Act,
to find out how many people are now not receiving any service at all and having
to find alternative transport.
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