Patients in need of transport: Sascha’s story
Sascha's transport quest
Sascha was eight and a half months pregnant when her appointment came through. Getting to hospital in Preston from Blackpool with no car or cash for a taxi felt impossible. Stories like Sascha’s add up to the millions wasted on missed appointments by the NHS.
I asked if it could be a phone call appointment because I had no transport to get there. And they said, no, they can’t do it over the telephone.
It has to be a face-to-face appointment. So we just panicked for the week. How was I going to get there?”
Sascha told the Other Side of Blackpool Podcast how she debated the various ways she could get to Preston by train and then walk over a mile to the bus station to get to the hospital which is 3.5 miles out of town. Oh and Sascha was just two weeks away from giving birth!
I’m not a good walker and my mobility scooter doesn’t go on the train or the bus. It would have meant quite a bit of walking.”
We went to help Sascha find out if she was eligible for transport to the hospital in Preston…and she was! But the ambulance didn’t turn up and the NHS sent a taxi for her instead. She was late for her appointment.
Lots of stories like Sascha’s add up to stubbornly poor public health figures for Blackpool – and millions wasted on missed appointments by Blackpool Victoria Hospital alone.
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Kelsie was left stranded at Blackpool Victoria Hospital at 2am one night in December
Kelsie’s story is about one dark night in December at Blackpool’s Victoria Hospital. Kelsie is a young mum with a tiny baby. Having got there taxi transport, she found herself stranded two miles out of town at 2am.
“I was there till about two o’clock in the morning. So I asked, is there any way you can get me transport back home, please, because you’ve got me transport up to the hospital. And they said, sorry, but we can’t, we don’t provide transport. I had no way of getting home. My baby didn’t have a coat because we got a taxi up to the hospital. And they expected me to walk back home.”
In her own words
Our group of residents quizzing patients about how they got to hospital -October 2024
The Disability Forum met at the hospital to put the queries to NHS managers. Only the parking department came, but no one from the ambulance service was available. Listen to our podcast from that day.
A group of residents went to the hospital to ask for feedback from patients. Here are our notes from the day:
- From Garstang. No buses to the hospital so patient receives lift from elderly family member. Car parking ‘awful’ (oversubscribed).
- From Cleveleys. Tram and bus around one hour travel time.
- From Bispham – drives own car – ‘parking nightmare!’
- Couple who have to come to hospital 3 times a week. Disabled. They undertake the half hour walk as taxi is 30 pounds per week.
- From Cleveleys. No direct bus. Have to change. ‘Car parking is nightmare.’
- Patients noted that parking was no longer something that could be paid for by cash. Card only – ‘Is this progress?’
- A and E patient quoted 30 pounds taxi home. In some distress as could not pay. Later seen catching bus. Was disabled and bus stop to her house is 15 mins walk.
- Outpatient waits for transport can be all day for a 20 minute appointment. Patients who are waiting see their neighbours collected but cannot travel with them. Say there seems to be no coordination of the patient transport service. One driver admitted their numbers were 13 down on usual that day due to illness etc among drivers.
- Comment that the term ‘patient transport/community transport/volunteer transport’ was a concept that was generally understood – however it was not heard of as ever being available in Blackpool
- All in favour of park & ride/voluntary transport scheme and overhaul of parking procedure
Kris worked as a homeless link worker at Victoria Hospital, responsible for the safe discharge of homeless people. His job was to link them with the council, ensure they had somewhere safe to go, prevent returns to A&E and free up hospital beds.
Kris told the Other Side of Blackpool Podcast about the system he witnessed:
- A woman who arrived in a wheelchair with a broken wheel, denied hospital transport. Kris requested transport for her, but she was told she didn’t meet the criteria. She had to have a friend come from central Blackpool and push her home on a three-wheeled wheelchair.
- The arbitrary nature of decisions: “You spoke to one person and somebody was entitled, you spoke to another person and they weren’t. So there was no kind of continuity or consistency about patient transport.”
The System That Disappeared
When Kris first started his role, arranging transport was straightforward. He would phone hospital transport, arrange a taxi, sometimes get authority from a particular person, and the patient would get home safely.
Then suddenly, everything changed.
The new response to transport requests: “Can the person walk?”
If the answer was yes, the reply came back: “Well, then they can walk home.”
A vicar on the route back to Blackpool reported that people were ‘knocking on the vestry door’ asking for bus fare to Fleetwood. He saw people walking the 2 miles into Blackpool in their slippers.
The Budget Crisis Revealed
The Poverty Truth Project got a meeting with the hospital CEO to ask what was happening with patient transport.
The hospital was paying around £30,000 per month for taxis. The word went down from management: No more taxis.
It was cost-saving measure that left vulnerable patients stranded.
The hospital was invited to participate in the podcast to share their story and seek solutions with residents. Although initially willing, they were ultimately unavailable.
We pursued this issue with the council and they called a ‘hospital transport summit’ in December 2025. Here is the presentation we made there:
