User perspectives on the Patient Transport Service

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove carried out a review of the Patient Transport Service (PTS) in 2016 after receiving serious concerns from patients attending the Renal Outpatient Department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. The review involved interviews with 50 renal dialysis patients who depended on patient transport to attend life-sustaining treatment. Overall, patients reported that the service deteriorated dramatically after responsibility transferred from South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) to Coperforma in April 2016. While some improvements were reported from August onwards, significant concerns remained. 

Patients described widespread delays, missed journeys, poor communication and difficulties contacting the control centre. Many reported waiting several hours for transport before or after treatment, with some missing dialysis sessions or having treatment times shortened. Saturday services attracted particular criticism, with patients describing them as unreliable and stressful. In contrast, the previous service operated by SECAmb was generally remembered positively for its reliability, continuity of drivers and better communication. Some patients praised transport provided by Medi4, which was viewed as professional and dependable. 

The impact on patients was considerable. Many described increased anxiety, stress, exhaustion and disruption to family and caring arrangements as a result of transport failures. Patients already coping with complex and demanding treatments often spent additional hours waiting in hospital or at home without clear information about when transport would arrive. Complaints were frequently reported as difficult to pursue, with many patients describing poor responses, standardised apology letters or an inability to get through to the provider by telephone. 

Healthwatch concluded that the service failures had severely damaged confidence in patient transport provision. Recommendations included immediate action to address ongoing reliability problems, particularly at weekends, stronger complaints and escalation procedures, clearer service standards, better driver training, improved communication with patients and greater use of technology to provide accurate journey information. Healthwatch also called for wider independent review of commissioning arrangements and performance monitoring to ensure lessons were learned and future patient transport services were more reliable, responsive and accountable.