East Durham Hospital Link
Challenge
There are no http://www.coap.org/ facilities within East Durham, with residents having to travel South to Hartlepool, Stockton or even Middlesbrough for specialist facilities, West to Durham or North to Sunderland.
Travelling by public transport often meant changing buses at least once. Some carers and visitors had to resort to taxis often costing £30 per journey. Less mobile patients were able to use the Patient Transport Service provided by the North East Ambulance Service but this didn’t cater for carers or visitors.
This problem was highlighted through work done by the local Primary Care Trust, who turned to the local Health Partnership and specifically Durham County Council to help provide the solution. This came in the form of the East Durham Hospital Link service, a demand responsive bus service operating a fixed timetable, but with flexible pick up arrangements. The service caters for early morning consultations and visiting hours, but is not provided all weekend. Hospital link bus with regular traveller Stu How it works Bookings are made through the Durham County Council Travel Response Centre and sent directly to the vehicles on the road. Operating as a local bus service, Hospital Link can be used by patients, carers, visitors or staff. The service accepts concessionary travel passes, so the elderly and disabled can travel free during the scheme hours. The PCT wanted the Hospital Link service to largely replace the Patient Transport Service in East Durham with only high needs patients being moved by the specialist Ambulance teams. Therefore all the telephones calls related to requests for health transport from the area are made directly to the Travel Response Centre. Trained staff book either a Hospital Link journey, Patient Transport using their direct link to the NEAS Cleric system or direct the caller to their local public transport service should nothing else be suitable. The vehicles operated were initially low floor Mercedes Sprinters, allowing wheelchair access and were fitted with ticket machines and on-board readers for last minute bookings. The funding comes from a mix of Health and local authority budgets meeting a range of Health and Social welfare criteria. In addition, Durham County Council procured the hospital link service using four vehicles, but incorporating two day centre contracts which also helped offset the running costs of the service. Concessionary Travel helps eligible passengers travel free and these payments along with the fares collected also help top up the budget.
Conclusion
The service is well used with many people, both patients and visitors are now able to travel to Hospital more easily with a seamless journey that is affordable.
The service set up in 2009 and is still running successfully in 2012.
Awards
This scheme won a Strategic Health Authority award for innovation in 2010.
Network Creative’s involvement
Staff now working for Network Creative were involved in the partnership development, innovative scheme design and implementation of East Durham Hospital Link as part of their full time employment with Durham County Council.
Network Creative is able to provide a range of expert services, advice and innovative solutions for small and medium sized passenger transport operators or local authorities. We offer a personal service which is both practical and affordable.