Public transport during radical treatment.

[Palpman]

My wife is starting radical radiochemo early January for stage 3 lung cancer.

Five years ago she had throat cancer in Portugal and the chemo led to her getting sepsis, pneumonia and cardiac arrest.

Now I'm a bit scared for her to use a bus to travel the 50 minute journey to the hospital. I'm not even sure if this is allowed.

I don't drive and we have no other means of transport and a taxi is totally too expensive for us.

Has anyone used the Non Emergency Transport Service and if so, what is their criteria?

[Frances4r]

Get in touch with cancer care in your area. They provide free transport for treatment. The drivers are volunteers and provide a fantastic service to the cancer community. Hope treatment goes well.

[Jules_58]

I have just been through chemo/radiotherapy and then an op for lung cancer, get in touch with your Macmillan nurse and they should sort the transport out for you, as said it’s a mix of taxis and volunteers and you won’t have to pay x hope all goes well x

[Palpman]

Thanks for the advice but I did go to Macmillan yesterday. They gave me a pamphlet about the service of Non Emergency Patient Transport. It is up to me to apply but they were not too sure if they would do it for cancer treatments.

I have never seen one of their mini busses around here so I'm not sure if they operate in Gloucester area.

There is a voluntary taxi service that rely on donations but I have a problem with that. I never know how much to give so I tend to pay more than normal fees.

My question is; Has anyone used NHS NEPTS (Non Emergency Patient Transport Service)?

[JanetteR57]

Non emergency patient transport varies around the country - but is also supplemented by local schemes often run by grassroots communities/charities with volunteers to do this - do talk to your lung nurse and ask your hospital.... do you have any friends or relatives willing to take her? often people would love to help out and don't know how to or what to offer that would help.... just a thought....

[Palpman in reply to JanetteR57]

We live in Gloucester and only have 2 daughters in Wales. We arrived here from Cape Town just before Covid so have not made local friends.

[RoyCastleHelpline Partner Ask the Nurse Roy Castle]

Hi,

I have attached a link to the August 2021 Report of the non-emergency patient transport review which may be of interest.

england.nhs.uk/wp-content/u...

I have also attached a couple of links(you may already have seen these) relating Gloucestershire Hospitals Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS).It is a Department of Health scheme which allows patients on a low income or specific benefits to claim their travel costs to hospital.

gloucestershireccg.nhs.uk/w...

glosfamiliesdirectory.org.u...

Kind regards,

All the helpline support team at the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation..

[JanetteR57]

Always tricky when new to an area and family living further away - does your local Trust have a cancer support centre within it? some have links to other groups as well where volunteers often help out with patient transport... in our local area when I was on the CCG board I raised a lot of questions when the non emergency patient transport specification came to our board for comments - as it suggested patients had to be on benefits/blue badge etc to benefit not recognising there are many other situations where this might not be the case the need is just as high.... if there is a telephone number for the service might just be worth giving them a call directly to see who is eligible and what sort of timescales might be involved - I know some people moaned that for a journey that might take half an hour, if dropping off lots of people, it could spread considerably which for some patients in discomfort would have been too much.... sometimes local taxi companies are willing to negotiate rates if regular trips might be involved....hope you get some help soon.

[Palpman]

Thank you for the replies and links. I am much less confident of getting transport after reading the link.

[Molly456mandy]

Morning,

Sorry to hear about your wife. My daughter had to use Patient Transport no problems just ask your Cancer Nurse or the General Office in the hospital. It is free and reliable only problem is you have to be ready to be collected at least 2 hours before appointment. There is a telephone number to ring and you must book your appointment. Remember to check you are on the collection list the day before. If transport late for any reason ring the hospital they will hold the appointment for you then ring the transport people they will arrange alternative. Good Luck

[Palpman in reply to Molly456mandy]

Thanks for the info Molly. We'll talk with her nurse as it gets closer to the time. She starts her treatment daily from 04 January.

Take care. Marco.