Heart attack patient forced to pay taxi fare home from hospital (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Heart attack patient forced to pay taxi fare home from hospital

AN ELDERLY woman who was recovering from a heart attack had to pay a £25 taxi fare because there was no hospital transport to take her home.

Ninety year-old Sarah Chandler was taken by ambulance to Cheltenham General Hospital last Thursday after she suffered a heart attack.

Mrs Chandler, of St Michael's Road, Cirencester spent four nights in hospital and was then told she could go home on the Monday.

But there was no transport to take her and she was told she would have to make her own way home.

"When I asked about going home I was told they could not take me in the ambulance and I would have to find my own way home," she said.

"I waited all afternoon and in the evening made enquiries about my medication."

Whilst Mrs Chandler, who also suffers from arthritis, was waiting for her medication her taxi was also waiting and she had to pay for the time.

"I had to get a taxi but the medication wasn't ready and I still had to pay the waiting time on the meter," she said.

"It cost me quite a bit of money. "I didn't need that sort of stress at the time."

Mrs Chandler said she had no complaints about the way she was treated by the medical staff during her stay at the hospital but the transport had let her down.

"It's alright if you've got relations and friends with cars but I haven't.

"The hospital transport should be efficient for older people and it needs to be sorted out."

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman Yvonne Wray said: "The general rule is hospital transport is only provided for people who have a medical need for something like blindness or who come regularly for chemotherapy treatment or dialysis.

"Three years ago the health authority made a decision that we would no longer be able to provide patient transport to everybody who wanted it in order to make savings. "There are some exceptions to the rule.

"The decision was made to introduce savings in transport. "It was either that or patient savings."