I wish to complain about the very poor treatment which my elderly mother received recently from the ambulance service. She is 86, and lives alone in Forfar (I am her closest relative geographically: I live in Edinburgh). She is about to go to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee to have a cataract removed. Her GP surgery advised her to ring the ambulance service to arrange for an ambulance to take her to hospital and bring her home again. When she phoned this number the person who answered asked her how she normally gets around in Forfar.
When she replied that she uses the local bus, this person informed her that in that case she would have use public transport to get to Ninewells. My mother has no idea how to get a bus from the bus station in Dundee out to Ninewells - (she would have to take3 buses )and she would have been worried sick while having the procedure carried out about how she was going to get home. When this was explained to her, the ambulance service person simply stated that this is the policy. If that really is the case, then the policy is shocking in its sheer lack of care and compassion. I am now going to have to take a day off work to drive up to collect her and take her to the hospital and return her home. I do not mind having to do this - but equally I do not see why it ought to be necessary, given that there is a publicly-funded ambulance service which exists precisely for this purpose. Must your policy be implemented with such a seeming absence of concern as to its impact on vulnerable patients?
"There is a service which exists precisely for this purpose."
About: Ninewells Hospital / Ophthalmology Ninewells Hospital Ophthalmology DD1 9SY Scottish Ambulance Service / Patient Transport Service Scottish Ambulance Service Patient Transport Service EH12 9EB
Posted by Jhg (as ),
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