Transport department
Patients are encouraged to arrange their own transport to and from hospital for outpatient appointments or their in-patient stay. If patients are unable to arrange their own transport, the SWLEOC transport team can collect patients from home and ensure they arrive safely and on time for their appointments.
The service started with 1 taxi and driver. The service has grown with demand and is now managed by the Trust. There are 6 drivers and 1 manager.
- Schedulers;
- wards;
- outpatients;
- reception;
- SWLEOC management,
either by phone, email, or face to face.
Based at Epsom Hospital, but collects patients from all over South East of England.
- Cleric;
- Bluespier;
- Outlook
- Hours the department will operate;
- patient numbers now and in the future;
- how many days per week transport is required.
- The amount of transport required varies from day to day and fluctuates unpredictably. Some days can be quiet and some days very busy.
- Regular communication with different departments and planning as much as possible.
- Keeping staff motivated and happy;
- staff to take vehicle home, allowing a quicker start in the morning;
- drivers need to be flexible so can start earlier or start later to help to cover later clinics;
- constant contact with all departments;
- building good relationships;
- collecting all patients on time and making sure they are in on time for appointments, and not kept waiting long to go home.
- Staff need to be happy, looked after and appreciated;
- patients need to be contacted to review any transport needs related to their mobility, and to let them know an approximate time to expect their driver;
- vehicles need to be user friendly, including; steps on the side, and room for patients to be able to extend their legs;
- don’t over commit your drivers, plan, make sure they have enough time to get the patient onto the vehicle and to take them into the department, it is not about how long the journey takes, you need to allow time for patients to get on and off the transport vehicle safely;
- plan the return journeys as best you can so you don’t have a bottleneck of patients ready and not enough drivers to take them home;
- communication is key to this happening; you need to be in constant contact;
- communication between drivers’ departments and main trust is important.
- Adapting and changing from HTL to the trust.
Staff
Staff Member: Transport Manager (1 WTE)
Role:
- plan all work for the drivers to collect the patients;
- call all the patients to confirm their mobility requirements and pick up times;
- constant contact with wards, checking when patients will be ready to go;
- constant contact with receptions to see how patients are doing and ETA when they will be ready to go home;
- helping schedulers if they need to change times and dates for bookings;
- management of transport staff;
- liaising with patients calling in to check if transport has been booked.
Staff Member: Driver (6 WTE)
Role:
- transporting all SWLEOC patients to and from the hospital, and other hospitals if needed;
- help to cover some of the main trust patients that need transport.