More people using public transport, good publicity, increased confidence,health and wellbeing of patients
At least £500 based on what it would cost to transport patients by taxi or minibus
Proposal:
To have 50 oyster cards, each loaded with £7.00 credit. These would be used exclusively for Patient Transport Services patients who apply for transport on the grounds of homelessness or financial difficulties, or who do not meet the criteria laid down for the allocation of this facility. The project is linked to duty of care responsibilities, especially in terms of discharging patients. Oyster cards will be issued via the Transport Department. Aim is to assess scheme over period of 3 months from launch. Project planning started in 2009 and we hope to launch in Sept 2010. As there are 50 Oyster cards, when these have been used up the project will finish, unless there is further funding.
Update Summer 2011 -
The cards are granted to individuals requiring assistance on their homeward journey from the hospital solely due to the fact that they are unable to meet the financial costs of their passage on their own. This initiative has met with a satisfactory level of success so far, as it has assisted in easing some of the pressure on our Transport Department which handles well over a 150 requests daily, and are therefore always hard pushed to meet the contract specified turnaround time of 1 hour for patients. Allocation of vehicles has managed to therefore focus primarily on individuals who require assistance of a medical nature when homeward bound.
NHS Chelsea and Westminster
Transport Saving costs was the primary business reason. Also hoped that by giving someone an Oyster card they will be encouraged to charge it up themselves and use it to get out and about more, hopefully having longer term benefits.
Sub regional Group (SRG) - Provided the funding, and in applying for the funding we had to think of an innovative sustainable travel initiative.
Cards will continue to be issued in cases when financial assistance is deemed necessary, which will further help to ease daily and ever increasing pressures on the Transport team