Hospital transport for cancer patients in the Covid Crisis

I am due in for my operation to remove the infected bowel section on Wednesday 2nd December and expected to arrive on the ward at 7.30 am. I live alone and I don't drive. My biggest problem is the major struggle to get transport to and from Royal Preston Hospital.  I was only aware this was even offered at all when I made my first of two trips to Chorley Hospital for pre-Op Covid testing, when a free taxi there and back was provided as I do not drive.  I am expected to have this test again for the second time on Sunday 29^th November.  At the first Chorley visit 15^th November, I was told that while Covid free I have to self-isolate until my op. This contradicts RPH insisting I come in twice for tests and to give me an iron infusion.  Obviously I needed a teleportation devise or a driver able to sit well apart from me to bring me in and a neighbour (himself Covid-free and masked) brought me in on the 18^th November.  After the first treatment I went to the reception to request a taxi back but they insisted I could only book that with the team who tested me (they locked up and went home as soon as they finished with me). I had to beg for a lift again, inconveniencing others.  On my second visit, 24^th November, again having got a lift in by my neighbour, I did ask the staff treating me to arrange transport home but they refused on the grounds that I had not booked for coming in as well.  The rules seem to be quite arbitrary, like turning someone down for not standing on one leg and singing Hallelujah backwards. Had I followed the receptionist’s advice on the previous visit and gone all the way back to the department that tested me (had they still been in) it would have been a wasted trip if the turned me down on the same or similar nonsense grounds I was fobbed off with this visit. I was told ‘we don’t make the rules’ – they also don’t make them known to the patients until it is too late.I appreciate that may want to deter patients getting taxis in at NHS expense for every splinter and papercut before going on a shopping spree and getting a comfy ride home but they are  making things impossible for genuine patients in need under the extreme extra threat presented by Covid-19. Has anyone else run into these Catch-22 issues? 

I phoned the hospital (Royal Preston) about arranging a lift for me for my 7.30 check in for Wednesday only to be told  “You need a taxi to get you in for 7.30? They only start from 8am. “ 

I am therefore again having to come in with a lift from a neighbour (untested for Covid) as the alternatives would be walk, get two crowded buses, or pay for a taxi ride with a cabbie untested for covid, or build a Star Trek Transporter Beam.  The taxi situation amounts to offering a service and then making it as difficult as possible for anyone to make use of it to save costs. They want me to make my own way in and not break self-isolating rules at the same time. They sent me a letter stating that I shouldn't leave home for any reason (any underlined) or share a car with anyone other than for hospital transport (unclear if this means designated cabbies or ambulance crews only or neighbours who haven't been Covid tested giving a lift when the hospital won't assign a cab. It's a mess.