PRESSURE is mounting on NHS bosses to review a move to restrict the number of patients who receive free transport to hospital appointments.

As members of Richmondshire District Council voted unanimously to press Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby clinical commissioning group (CCG)  for answers, the authority’s leader, Councillor Yvonne Peacock branded the Patient Transport Services changes “a mistake”.

The CCG has stated it had introduced measures to reduce the number of people receiving the free non-emergency transport as part of a drive to address the £3m deficit it was expected to face this year.

The council meeting had heard an octogenarian cancer patient with limited sight from Wensleydale was among numerous people who had missed crucial hospital appointments after being told they no longer qualified for the Patient Transport Service.

The elderly man had been told he was expected to travel a 120-mile round trip in one day to chemotherapy and eye injection appointments at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough and The Friarage Hospital, Northallerton without assistance.

Upper Dales councillor John Blackie said an hour after alerting the CCG’s chief officer to the “absolute disgrace”, a senior officer admitted the fact the patient was on chemotherapy had been overlooked.

Cllr Blackie said due to community intervention the patient had received transport, adding he feared the elderly man was just the tip of the iceberg of patients who had been unjustly refused transport. 

He said while the CCG had pledged to consult residents over major changes to services, it had not done so over the implementation of national guidelines on qualifying for free non-emergency transport to hospitals.

The meeting heard councillor Geoffrey Linehan accuse the CCG of being selective about the national guidelines it was choosing to follow, as the Government had advised CCGs to take into account distances patients faced travelling and to use their discretion.

Authority leader Councillor Yvonne Peacock said: “We are talking about the most vulnerable people. Everybody pays the same taxes for these services, whether they live two doors away or some distance from the hospital, and to be able to go there is as vital as the treatment you get.

“This has made people very frightened and very unhappy that they might be able to get to an appointment. Something is wrong, there’s been a mistake and the CCG needs to understand that and go back to how it was.”

Councillors approved a motion calling on the CCG to detail the geographic make-up of the 200 people involved in its trial of the new regime, reveal the criteria used to decide whether patients qualify for transport and to appear before councillors again to account for the “anxieties” the move had caused.

A CCG spokeswoman said: "Although geography is mentioned for CCGs to consider, it is important to note that the need for the service is fundamentally about considering a patient's medical and mobility challenges.  

“The process has been introduced across the wider North Yorkshire area and is being regularly monitored. Materials to include patient information leaflets have also been distributed across the area. There is an appeals process in place which YAS call handlers are encouraged to share with any caller wishing to take this forward.”