HELPING US TO HELP YOU

HELPING US TO

HELP YOU

For any complaints or incidents in relation to GSL Patient Transport, please contact:

The Royal Surrey County Hospital

Patient Transport Services

Does Your Patient Require Patient Transport?

Hospital-Funded Patient Transport can only be provided to patients with medical needs who score 4 or more on the Department of Health guided patient eligibility

criteria as detailed on the RSCH Transport booking form.

Alternatives

• Voluntary Car Schemes/Good Neighbour schemes (volunteer drivers using there own cars). Tel: 0845 034411

• Community or Group Transport (Minibuses which take people belonging to clubs). Tel: 08456 009009

• Dial-a-ride (Minibuses that can be booked for a journey). Tel: 01372 732000

• Taxi vouchers (People without their own transport, mobility problems, no access to public transport can apply for these).

o Mole Valley: 01737 737495.

o Surrey Heath and Woking Borough: 01276 707 565.

o Tandridge District: 01883 740286.

o Reigate and Banstead: 01737 645902.

o Elmbridge Borough: 01372 474550.

• Bus (Permits allowing free travel are available from local council). 01483 444549

• Train (Disabled Persons Railcard can be obtained). 08457 48 49 50

• British Red Cross (Cars 50p per mile). Tel: 01483 447 861

• St John Ambulance (Ambulances with qualified crews) Tel: 01483 532028

• Voluntary Association for Surrey disabled, (Hire car available for disabled residents in Surrey £25 per day). Tel: 01306 741500

• Care for Guildford (Must reside in Borough of Guildford). Tel: 01483 566635.

…and many others [see booklets and websites]

Booking Transport Outpatients Transport:

The first appointment: if transport is required for a patient to attend an outpatient’s appointment it must be booked by the referring practitioner. All subsequent bookings to attend the same clinic will be made by the clinic staff if the patient still meets the eligibility criteria.

Escorts: patients that have a medical need for someone to accompany them in the ambulance can be booked. Unless absolutely essential, relatives/friends should be encouraged to meet the patient at the hospital. This will ensure the best use can be made of the space in the ambulances to bring more patients into hospital in a timely manner.

A booking form needs to be filled out for every appointment for which transport is required. The top [white] copy is sent to the transport desk [outside Pharmacy on Level B] and the yellow copy is sent to Catherine Collard in OPD 2, Level B. Every request MUST have an accurate eligibility score, which totals more than 4, in order for the transport to be booked. Any form submitted with no score, will be rejected and transport will not be booked.

The MINIMUM information required on the transport booking form includes:

o Patients full name.

o The accurate and confirmed full address/location and contact numbers the patient needs to be collected from.

o The accurate and confirmed full address/location and contact numbers the patient needs to be taken to.

o The patient’s mobility requirements using the transport categories [page 5 of this booklet].

o The date and time the patient is going to be ready to travel or needs to be at an outpatient appointment.

o Any additional information the ambulance crew might need to know about the patient’s condition – including MRSA & C Diff.

o Equipment needing to travel.

o Access details for a home address if known.

If the above information is correct it will help us to send the most appropriate resource first time round in order to meet your patient’s needs.

GSL needs to have all Outpatient requests by 5pm, the working day before the

appointment. If you book the transport on the same day as the appointment, GSL

will not be able to guarantee meeting the appointment time.

For any complaints or incidents in relation to GSL Patient Transport, please contact:

Discharge and Transfer Transport

When you have a predicted date that a patient will need to be discharged or transferred, book the transport as soon as you can. This will give our planning team time to pre-allocate an ambulance to your patient. It is better to book the transport and then cancel it if the situation changes.

The times you identify on the form for discharges and transfers, are the time that the patient will be ready to travel. Please ensure the patient is READY, have their TTO’s and are PACKED at the time you specify on the form. Whilst this is not a guaranteed collection time, GSL will endeavour to pick up all discharges and transfers that are pre-booked the day before at the time you have requested [Please book this transport as outlined above for outpatient appointments]. For any discharge and transfer requests made on-the-day, GSL cannot guarantee collection and will collect the patient on their next available vehicle if possible.

Key points for Discharges:

o All patients need to score 4 or more on the patient eligibility criteria.

o Relatives or friends should be encouraged to take as much of the patients property home. The ambulance will ideally only take one piece of medical equipment and one reasonable sized bag, due to the capacity constraints on the vehicles. However, if this has not been possible, please ensure you write this on the booking form, so the be space can be planned appropriately.

o Please ensure the patients are ready at the date and time you specify on the form.

On-the-Day Travel

For Outpatients, please advise your patients to be ready up to 90 minutes before their appointment time. The crew will wait and assist patients to put outside clothing on and assist them in securing their property. If the transport is running late, GSL will endeavour to contact your patient to advice them of the delays and give them an estimated collection time as well as advising the clinic of an estimated arrival time.

Once your patient is ready for their return transport, please inform the transport desk on ext: 4436/4437 and the Patient Transport Liaison Officers will inform the ambulance crew.

For discharges and transfers, please advice the transport desk if a patient is not

going to be ready to travel at the arranged time. This will save the ambulance crew

having to come to the ward and will enable them to collect another patient that may

be ready to travel.

Patient Mobility Categories

C1 Car: Walking/mobile patient, require no lifting or moving, needs a crew of one but can get in to a car.

SCV Walker: Walking/mobile patient, require no lifting or

moving, only needs a crew of one but cannot get in to a car.

C2 Two Crew: May need to be carried up and down stairs, needs a crew of two.

C3 Brings Wheelchair: Have own wheelchair but can transfer in to a seat with a crew of two.

C4 Travels in Wheelchair: Travel in own wheelchair and stays in it, needs a crew of one.

C4 D Travels in Wheelchair 2: Travels in own wheelchair and stays in it, needs a crew of two.

C5 Travels in Electric Wheelchair: Travel in own electric wheelchair and stay in it.

S3 Non Medical Stretcher: Has a medical need to lie down, cannot weight bare and cannot sit in a chair, needs a crew of two.

S2 Intermediate Transport: Patient is stable and does NOT require ambulance technician or paramedic care. The crew are trained in ‘First Response’ skills [oxygen management – up to 4 litres, use of automatic defibrillator, basic

suctioning, triage and assessments].

South East Coast Ambulance Service [not GSL] see criteria overleaf

S1 Paramedic: Needs a paramedic crew

IT IS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL YOU PUT THE CORRECT CATEGORY ON THE BOOKING

FORM OTHERWISE TYPE OF TRANSPORT ARRIVING WILL NOT SUIT YOUR PATIENTS

NEEDS. THANK YOU.

For any complaints or incidents in relation to GSL Patient Transport, please contact:

CRITICAL CARE TRANSFER MATRIX OF TYPES OF AMBULANCE TO USE

Category Type of patient Escort

Criteria

Additional Comments A – Critical

Care and Emergency

DoH Hospital category: Level 3.

Patients receiving advanced respiratory support and/or monitoring and support of two or more organs and/or patients with chronic impairment of one or more organs who require support for an acute reversible failure of another organ system.

• Respiratory failure that requires ventilation

• Severe ischaemic heart disease

• Major post operative bleeding

• Acute on chronic COPD

• Urgent neurosurgery

DoH Hospital category Level 2.

Patients needing single organ monitoring and support or needing pre-operative optimisation or needing extended postoperative care with potential to deteriorate en-route.

• Emergency surgery in an unstable or high risk patient – eg dissecting aortic aneurysm,

• Spinal cord compression

• Obstetric emergencies

Doctor and Nurse/ODP with relevant critical care skills as per ICS

Guidelines (2002)

Life or limb threatened

Consultant decision to transfer

B – Urgent and/or

Time Limited

DoH Hospital category: Level 2.

Patients needing single organ monitoring and support or needing pre-operative optimisation or needing extended postoperative care.

• Intermediate surgery in patient > 70 years or ASA III or IV

• Failed thrombolysis - for rescue angioplasty

• For urgent angiogram

• Within 24 hours of tracheostomy insertion

DoH Hospital category: Level 1 (requiring continuous monitoring)

Patients in need of additional monitoring or clinical input and/or requiring staff with special expertise and/or additional facilities for at least one aspect of critical care delivered in a ward environment (excluding advanced airway management – ie intubation).

• All Paediatrics and neonates

• Consultant clinical decision for urgent transfer

• Acute Psychiatric patients

At

requester’s discretion dependant upon needs of patient and skills of ambulance crew

Escort Staff must have skills to manage both patient and equipment in order to maintain safe transfer

Life or limb threatened

Consultant decision to transfer

SECAMB

Clinical or

Medical

Director

decision to

transfer if

arbitration

required

C – Routine but with potential

to deteriorate

DoH Hospital category: Level 1 (no continuous monitoring).

Patients with abnormal vital signs not requiring a higher level of care

• Transfers of hospital inpatients

DoH Hospital category: Level 0

Patients whose needs are met through normal ward care but who require continuous IV infusion of IV fluids or drugs or continuous presence of a nurse.

• Transfers of hospital inpatients

As required (if non- paramedic crew)

Consultant decision to transfer

SECAMB Clinical or Medical Director decision to transfer if arbitration required D –

Routine Non- Emergency

Patient Transport

DoH Hospital category: Level 0

Patients whose needs are met through normal ward care and who fit the agreed eligibility criteria

• Transfers of hospital inpatients who do not require continuous IV infusion of IV fluids or drugs or continuous presence of a nurse

• Routine booked outpatient appointments

• Booked admissions

• Discharge of patients to their own home / care home

• Nil urgent cases

PTS [GSL]

For any complaints or incidents in relation to GSL Patient Transport, please contact:

THE ROYAL SURREY COUNTY HOSPITAL TRANSPORT BOOKING FORM