Halima contacted POhWER on behalf of her daughter, Basma, when she had issues with the hospital transportation service. Basma is in her early forties and has a physical disability and struggles to communicate verbally. Basma used to use a mobility scooter to get around but her health has deteriorated; she is now bed bound and stays in her room all the time as she is unable to use the stair lift. Halima is Basma’s full-time carer.

Basma has various regular hospital appointments that she needs to attend. However, since she has become unable to self-mobilise, the non-emergency ambulance which comes to take her for her appointments have refused to take her as they say they are not insured to take a patient like Basma down the stairs and into the ambulance. This results in the appointments being missed, further appointments being made, and the same thing happening again. On one occasion, the ambulance crew used their transfer chair (a mobility device designed to carry patients up or down stairs and in and out of vehicles) to transport Basma from her bed and down the stairs into the ambulance but since then, all ambulance crews have refused, giving “not being insured” as the reason. 

Halima had not been given any information about what needed to happen so that Basma could be taken to her appointments by the non-emergency ambulance service in future. She contacted POhWER because she wanted support from an advocate to make a complaint to get an explanation about why they refuse to take her daughter to her hospital appointments and what they can do to accommodate Basma in future. Halima feels Basma’s health will suffer if she is unable to get to her appointments and needs a solution to be found.

Rohan, a POhWER advocate, met with Halima at her home and listened to the details of her complaint. Halima told the advocate that she would not be able to write a letter of complaint herself as English is not her first language and she finds it hard. Rohan asked whether she wanted a meeting with the hospital transportation service so she could explain the situation in person rather than in a letter. He explained that he could attend this with her for support. Halima explained that as she is Basma’s full-time carer it would be difficult for her to attend the meeting because she would need to find someone to support Basma while she was not there. Rohan asked if Halima would like him to write up the complaint letter for her and send it to her for her to review. Halima agreed to this. 

Halima did not know where the complaint needed to be sent. Rohan researched this and discovered that a complaint could be made to the local Integrated Care Board as they commission the Non-Emergency Hospital Transport service from the Transportation group. Halima was happy for the complaint to be sent there. Rohan wrote a complaint letter based on the details Halima had shared with him. Halima reviewed the letter and once she was happy with it, Rohan submitted it to the Integrated Care Board on her behalf.

Halima received a call from the Patient Experience and Complaints Co-ordinator to let her know that her complaint had been received and that they would like to discuss the complaint in more detail. A follow up call was arranged, and Rohan supported Halima to explain the issues her daughter had experienced and their concerns.

Following that conversation, the Patient Experience and Complaints Co-ordinator requested that a full home assessment be carried out to enable the Hospital Transport Team to have a full understanding of Basma’s needs to enable her to be transported to her hospital appointments going forward. 

Basma’s file was updated with the information gathered during the home assessment and Halima received a phone call from the non-emergency ambulance service stating that they will allocate three ambulance paramedics when Basma has an appointment, to remove the health and safety issue they were previously concerned about which was causing them to refuse to transport Basma.

The Patient Experience and Complaints Co-ordinator agreed with Halima to keep her complaint open until there has been a successful journey and everyone is confident that there will be no issues going forward.

Halima was extremely pleased with the outcome of her complaint and the involvement of her advocate who had guided her through the process, communicated her complaint and concerns on her behalf when she felt unable to do so herself and supported her to speak up when she felt able to.