BEING ACCEPTED FOR HOSPITAL TRANSPORT USING NEPTS

ChristineC1

Hi all,

OMG! I have just been accepted for hospital transport after battling them for weeks to recognise my disability (agoraphobia, panic attack, PTSD) and inability to travel by public transport of any kind. I have involved by therapist, GP, the head nurse and surgeon's secretary, Macmillan nurses, PALS, making a complaint through the complaints dept. I have explained in detail what my disability is and how incapacitated I am by the mental and physical effect on me and having to be sedated in order to travel. I copy / pasted the NEPTS criteria with my own detailed explanation under each section to explain how disabled I am and why I am eligible. I was only told this morning through PALS that to have a blue badge and ability to drive myself rules me out of applying for hospital transport because criteria is so restricted. I cannot drive having a panic attack to the point of being sick and passing out and will be sedated in order to travel. Without the help of Macmillan nurses and your forum I would not have had the info to force a decision to be made. Also, Macmillan would have stepped in to liaise if I was turned again. I cannot tell you how relieved I am. This has been weeks of hard work and stress. Worse than having the cancer. For everyone with a disability needing help I urge to do as I have and if you need my help I am here because I know how hard I have had to fight to get what I need. I am still terrified of being trapped in the car or ambulance even under sedation. I do not have a spare tablet to test the effect on me so cannot gauge what state I will be physically in. The end result would have been no surgery and left with cancer if I did not get hospital transport. I am in shock now. Can't quite believe it's true. I expect this is all down to cost and not on accommodating the disability of the patient. Anyone who cannot fight the system and doesn't have someone to help them needs to contact their GP to get someone who can do it on their behalf. But it seems that NEPTS is what is needed, to describe in detail what the disability is, the effect on you travelling, the reason why public transport is just not an option and why, and that to be denied transport effectively leaves you without treatment because you have no other means possible in reaching the hospital. I am beyond appalled at what I have had to go through for this decision to be made.

Off for cuppa now to calm down. Have rang thanking everyone who I have involved for anything they have done in helping me (even though nobody has helped me because they are powerless to). Looking forward to chatting and getting to know you all. And I do mean it when I say I will help you if I can. Certainly an experience!😥

Christine x

MW123

@ChristineC1

Really glad to hear the news, though it’s appalling you had to fight so hard for what you were clearly entitled to. You should never have been put through that. Wishing you all the very best for the operation, and looking forward to hearing from you once it’s behind you. Take care xx

Rachel_Scope

Oh my goodness I'm so happy for you @ChristineC1! I was just reading what you posted last night and then this popped up! What a relief for you. It's so sad to hear you say that the stress of this has been worse than having cancer. It shouldn't be like this. I'm going to spread the word about the issues of hospital transport and see if changes can be made. It's voices like yours that we need.

"I was only told this morning through PALS that to have a blue badge and ability to drive myself rules me out of applying for hospital transport". Thanks for letting us know this, it could help people in the future 😊

I'm just so happy for you ❤️

Rachel_Scope

Hope you don't mind @ChristineC1 but I copied this post and popped it on your previous post to make sure people saw the good news 😊

ChristineC1

Hiya,

Yes. Unbelievable the hoops I've had to jump through. All comes down to forcing The Transport Dept to recognise, accept and accommodate disability under the NEPTS criteria. Transparency is key. Needs to be public knowledge of what the rules and limitations are for those outside of the strict mobility Q@A on first application. Information on NEPTS needs to be given by the transport dept to patients as a next step so they can pursue it further. I was not given detail of the 'Operational Manager' who made the decision and why. Just relieved!

xx

Rachel_Scope

I love this -

"All comes down to forcing The Transport Dept to recognise, accept and accommodate disability under the NEPTS criteria. Transparency is key."

I'm relieved for you too but it would be nice to know why they changed their mind. Not everyone will be able to fight it like you did, which isn't fair.

ChristineC1

Yes I would too. Wouldn't give me the name of the person (operational manager) or the reason. I am following up on my complaint after surgery because they cannot get away with it. Like you said, not everyone can fight a system set up to save costs and fight a patient to the bitter end in order to save money. They must have known I wouldn't give up. I will be bringing this to the attention of the disability campaign group (I signed the petition about cuts to PIP and get regular updates) to make NEPTS a routine course of action with hospital transport and not hidden information in their website. My sis knows the process because she works in government. I will also be looking at legal action.

Have now got confirmation of surgery but had to chase several times to get it. Why is this so hard?

Anyway, I can now focus on getting the tests done and being set for the surgery itself. Will just have to deal with the transport experience on the day. Cannot imagine anything worse but I just have to grit my teeth and do it.

Thanks again for everything. Makes all the difference having support.

😁