AMBULANCE chiefs have vowed to investigate an incident where a patient had to take a taxi from upper Wensleydale to Bishop Auckland and back for a hospital appointment.

Officials of Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust were taken to task over the issue of cross-border working when patients needed to travel out of the area for treatment.

Coun Mike Graham told North Richmondshire Parish Forum that a patient from Hawes had his initial consultation at the Friarage hospital, Northallerton, with ambulance transport there and back.

The specialist told him his next appointment would be at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, but neither Tenyas nor the Bishop Auckland ambulance service was available to take him.

"He had to pay for a taxi all the way from Hawes to Bishop Auckland and back again to keep the appointment," Coun Graham told the meeting at Gilling West on Wednesday.

Graham Purdy, of the PCT, said the incident should not have happened, and asked for full details of the case to ensure an investigation took place.

Coun Graham said cross-border issues with ambulances and health provision often came to light in North Richmondshire, which was closer to Darlington and Barnard Castle hospitals than to Northallerton.

"Patients taken for treatment to Darlington Memorial hospital by ambulance have had to wait until early evening to be taken home," he said.

"They have been told that they have to wait for a Richmond ambulance. We appear to be in no man's land, sandwiched between Darlington PCT and Hambleton and Richmondshire PCT."

Mr Purdy said a distinction had to be made between ambulance services and patient transport services. "In-patients are collected from their home and the receiving hospital will take them home," he said.

"For out-patients, the general rule is that, within 50 miles of the hospital, the host ambulance area will take the patient and return them home. There are issues when it is on the boundary between two authorities."

Bob Rose, area general manager for Tenyas, said: "In cross-border issues we try to co-operate as much as possible. For villages close to the border, an ambulance from either service could collect patients."

Keith Hall, chairman of Richmondshire volunteer centre, said volunteer drivers were available to take people to hospital and doctor's appointments.

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