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Mon, 13 Dec 2021
A public consultation has opened regarding the future of non-emergency patient transport services (NEPTS) in the Island.
NEPTS was designed to assist people who are unable to make their own way to a healthcare appointment because of a medical condition, with transport provided between the person’s home and the facility they are attending. The service is also available to take people home after they have been discharged from hospital or other NHS care, if they cannot make an alternative arrangement.
The use of non-essential patient transport by the public has risen sharply over the last four years, along with the cost of running the service. In 2017, almost 5000 journeys to and from medical appointments were provided: by 2020 the number had jumped to almost 8700.
The consultation aims to find out what is causing the rise in demand, who uses the service and why, and what sort of eligibility criteria there should be for people who want to use on-Island patient transport in future.
Minister for Health and Social Care Lawrie Hooper MHK said: ‘The department is committed to providing an on-Island patient transport service for those who need it. To ensure that we can continue to deliver this service in a sustainable way, we need to better understand current users and why we have seen such an increase in people seeking to use the service. By adopting eligibility criteria we will ensure that patients who cannot use other forms of transport to get to their appointments can be assured of a reasonable, fair and responsive service.
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