NHS transport for renal dialysis patients |
Patient transport survey - an introduction
The NHS across Hampshire provides a Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) for those people who are, for health reasons, physically unable to make their own way to appointments.
The latest contract for this service was awarded in October 2014 but since that time it has been clear that the demands on the service are well above those that were expected.
The local NHS has analysed the way the transport service is being used, and there appear to be high levels of ‘inappropriate’ demand – people who are receiving NHS-funded transport, but who are potentially able to make their own travel arrangements. The publicly-funded transport service is only intended for those people whose health condition means they need additional support to travel (the specific criteria are set nationally, by the Department of Health), but the service is now struggling to support those people properly because resources are being used on patients who could make their own transport arrangements.
Currently, about 40% of all local NHS-funded non-emergency transport appears to be being used by people who, with minimal or no support, can actually walk to a car, or a clinic – referred to as ‘car walkers’. This costs more than £1m a year across the Portsmouth and south east Hampshire area, and about half of that (almost £540,000) is spent providing NHS-funded transport to renal dialysis patients who are car walkers.
Given the need to protect NHS transport services for those in greatest need, and the need to spend money as carefully as possible in financially challenging times, the NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) serving this area are already reviewing the transport booking process for non-renal clinics to ensure that only patients with appropriate health needs are using NEPTS. Now the CCGs would also like to review how the system works for renal dialysis clinics as well, and so would like to hear the views of people who are receiving dialysis so that those views can be fully considered before any decisions may be made.
We would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to answer the following questions.
The latest contract for this service was awarded in October 2014 but since that time it has been clear that the demands on the service are well above those that were expected.
The local NHS has analysed the way the transport service is being used, and there appear to be high levels of ‘inappropriate’ demand – people who are receiving NHS-funded transport, but who are potentially able to make their own travel arrangements. The publicly-funded transport service is only intended for those people whose health condition means they need additional support to travel (the specific criteria are set nationally, by the Department of Health), but the service is now struggling to support those people properly because resources are being used on patients who could make their own transport arrangements.
Currently, about 40% of all local NHS-funded non-emergency transport appears to be being used by people who, with minimal or no support, can actually walk to a car, or a clinic – referred to as ‘car walkers’. This costs more than £1m a year across the Portsmouth and south east Hampshire area, and about half of that (almost £540,000) is spent providing NHS-funded transport to renal dialysis patients who are car walkers.
Given the need to protect NHS transport services for those in greatest need, and the need to spend money as carefully as possible in financially challenging times, the NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) serving this area are already reviewing the transport booking process for non-renal clinics to ensure that only patients with appropriate health needs are using NEPTS. Now the CCGs would also like to review how the system works for renal dialysis clinics as well, and so would like to hear the views of people who are receiving dialysis so that those views can be fully considered before any decisions may be made.
We would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to answer the following questions.
(Please note that we have a formal Data Processing Agreement with Survey Monkey, to ensure that your anonymous data and responses are stored appropriately. If you would like to know more, you can visit the relevant section of the websites for Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport, and South Eastern Hampshire CCGs.)