Transport cost to hospital

Hi

I'm sorry to hear about your mum and hope that she is recovering.

Getting to hospitals can be difficult if you don't have access to your own transport and the NHS expects everyone to make their own way to non urgent hospital appointments.

If you mum is on an eligible benefit she may get her transport reimbursed by the hospitals cash office on production of receipts and the benefits award letter.

Depending on the area you live in she maybe eligible for the ambulance patient transport service, you need to get the telephone number from the hospital. Your mum will have to be assessed every month by the administrators of the service, it's quite a lengthy list of questions asked and some times the same question is asked twice. Obviously I can't tell you how to answer the questions but being as honest as you can but give answers to suit your needs and the advice I was given "How good are you at blagging" basically you don't have a car, you don't have any family or neighbours that can drive you, your mum can't use public transport etc.

There are voluntary organisations that have volunteer drivers to take you to hospital, normally this is a paid for service but will be cheaper than a taxi, e.g. I just returned from a hospital appointment using RVS, the hospital is 25 miles from my home, 50 miles round trip I paid the driver £38 but if I had used a local taxi company it would have been £45 each way, I don't qualify for any benefits. Again on production of receipts and benefits awards letter the costs can be reimbursed, if you can't do it at the time of the appointment you need to send the receipts, a copy of the awards letter and completed claim form to the hospital who will reimburse the costs (eventually)

The organisations that can help with volunteer drivers are

AGE UK

RVS

You maybe interested in this 

Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme

NHS Travel Costs

I hope this information helps but it is worth noting that each country of the UK has different criteria with regard to hospital transport but also different criteria applies within all the different areas of the NHS CCGs. You might also want to have a word with your GP about the transport costs and see what he says.

Hope this helps, if I can be of any further help please doubt hesitate to contact me.

Ian