"Ambulance transport to the hospital clinic"

P is 92 and currently is under five consultants at the local hospital. Receiving good, attentive care. It's not that she's seriously ill, but she's being monitored for a number of possible courses of action - she *is* 92! So she must make regular trips to clinics.

Normally her daughter (who has a full time job) takes time off work to go with her - especially as P's memory now won't reliably handle information given to her by the doctors, or required by them. But her daughter's holiday leave is dwindling. So today, when P's appointment was just for radiography without any consultation with a specialist, she decided to cross her fingers and let the ambulance service handle things. P uses her wheelchair to get from A to B now, needing someone to push her, and uses a mobile phone to be in touch with her daughter and her son (me, 300 miles away but retired, and thus able to spend time on the phone). So it was a bit nail-biting this morning for son and daughter, around P's 9: 15 appointment for a scan and ultrasound.

Everything was absolutely smooth. Ambulance arrived 45 minutes before the appointment. 20 minutes before required, P was being wheeled into the hospital when I phoned her to check how it was going. And an hour after the time of the appointment she was phoning me to say she was home and dry, all done!

This is such a good outcome. Not just because P got smoothly through a necessary outpatient trip to the hospital. But also because, over the past six months, we've been very pleased with her medical attention at the hospital but less than impressed with the administration: appointments being made (or not) and, especially, transport being booked (or not). "Will there be transport? Will it be the right kind? " is a critical question that we're always a bit uncertain about. So today was a great result for the Ambulance Service. Thank you to the crew and to the admin team. P is in pretty good shape for her age, but with her memory and her mobility she still depends completely on you to be in the right place at the right time.