Car travel with oxygen

bix

I live in Tameside. I am 85 years old man and have COPD and other medical conditions. I go to a day care centre three times a week using social services transport. However, my medical condition has deteriorated and I now need to use a wheelchair and oxygen. I have been told by Transport I need a crash tested wheelchair and a cage for my oxygen tank when I am transported to the day care centre. But Transport are not forthcoming in what I exactly need to buy to cover their health and safety procedure. Surely there must be other people who are in a similar situation. It is so frustrating.

Sam_Alumni

Hi @bix welcome to the community 

I'll have a search and see what I can find on this. @Debbie_Scope do you know anythng about this?

Sam_Alumni

I found this from this website:

To safely transport your oxygen cylinders in your vehicle please follow this advice:

1. Always inform your insurance company that you will be carrying oxygen.
2. Safely secure oxygen cylinders in the boot, behind the front seats or strapped in the back seat of the vehicle. We recommend that you place protection around cylinders to ensure that they do not move around in the boot of the vehicle.
3. Never transport oxygen cylinders unsecured in the front or rear passenger seats.
4. If transporting several ambulatory oxygen cylinders always carry them in a green safety box in the boot of the vehicle. We can provide this box if needed, just call us on 0800 373580 between 8.00am – 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.
5. Individual portable oxygen cylinders should be kept in the carry bag provided to you free of charge and secured using the rear seat belts.
6. Never use oxygen in a fuel station.
7. Never smoke while using oxygen in the car.
8. Do not store oxygen cylinders in your vehicle.
9. If you have to leave oxygen cylinders unattended in the car, keep them out of view in the boot.

I also found this, so you may want to contact the provider near you?

There are four companies in England that provide home oxygen services for the NHS. Each covers a certain geographical area.

Your oxygen treatment clinic will organise your oxygen supply from one of the suppliers below:

• Air Liquide:
  • 0808 143 9991 for London
  • 0808 143 9992 for north west
  • 0808 143 9993 for East Midlands
  • 0808 143 9999 forsouth west
• Baywater Healthcare: covers Yorkshire and Humberside, West Midlands and Wales(0800 373 580)
• BOC: covers the east and north east of England and Northern Ireland (0800 136 603)
• Dolby Vivisol: covers the south of England (0800 917 9840)

bix

Hi, thanks for research Sam. There is no problem transporting my wheelchair and oxygen in a car. My problem is the Tameside Social Services Transport bus which has laid down I need a crash tested wheelchair and an oxygen cage. All very well but they cannot give me any further advice to which wheelchair and which oxygen bag/cage that meets their requirements to enable me to go to day care.

Blue Frog

Have you asked Tameside Wheelchair services for advice? Your GP can refer you.  My daughter got her crash tested wheelchair buggy from the local WCS - and lots of her friends have ones with a holder for their travel O2 cylinders attached.  

If they need any more cylinders to take with them, Air Liquide supply big green boxes to carry them in.  

bix

Thank you very much Blue Frog. My son is contacting them now

bix

Thank you so much Blue Frog. I got my son to contact Tameside Wheelchair Services. Very helpful. Looks like carrying of oxygen is very dangerous and a cage is necessary. I cannot believe that I am the first person this has happened to in the Tameside region. Social Services have been involved and liaising with Transportation. It seems it has gone up to senior management level. Come on, I only want to go to day care which is just over 2 miles away

Sam_Alumni

Hi @bix sorry for the misunderstanding! 

It does seem very odd that they havent dealt with this situation before! I hope you get some answers asap! Let us know how you get on.

bix

I will keep you posted. I am sure there are many people in a similar position.

bix

Finally success. Thank you Blue Frog. It seems Air Liquid are solely responsible for the oxygen cylinders. They are happy to write a letter to Transport confirming that the cylinders are safe to transport. I just need to have a suitable bag to carry my oxygen on my wheelchair.

Sam_Alumni

Fantastic!! Thanks for letting us know @bix and thanks @Blue Frog for your help

Jean_OT

Hi Bix

Sorry I'm joining this conversation late but I'm pleased to see that you have already resolved the issue. However, it is disappointing that you had to sort it yourself rather than the transport service giving you good information in the first place.

As other people are likely to refer to this conversation in future I thought I'd just add an additional link to a page of advice that the Community Transport Association UK made available to their member organisations. It doesn't answer your specific query but is good general advice for organisations that might be unsure of their role and responsibilities when they are transporting passengers who use oxygen:

http://www.ctauk.org/UserFiles/Documents/AdviceInformation/ProblemSolvers/2014-Winter-Oxygen-Cylinders.pdf

Best Wishes

Jean

bix

Thank you Jean. I have downloaded the pdf. I now have a new crash tested wheelchair and a designated oxygen bag attached to my wheelchair during transportation. These have been given the ok by the Tameside Transport to the day care centre. This problem has taken 3 weeks to resolve. It was only by Blue Frig from this forum giving me a piece of information it enabled my son to contact various agencies for clarification. My son then TOLD Tameside Transport that it is the oxygen supplier, in this case, Air Liquid who would be taking responsibility for the safety of the containers. Otherwise this problem would be still ongoing.

Blue Frog

Really glad you got this sorted and that I could help x