Health board makes changes to patient escort policy

NHS Shetland has made some changes to its patient escort process that will take effect from 1 September.

Anyone requiring an escort who is in receipt of higher level disability living allowance (mobility or care component) or enhanced personal independence payment will automatically be entitled to an escort when they produce a current award letter when booking travel.

Those who need an escort due to their medical condition but are not receiving the allowance or payment will need to complete a request form, or have their carer do it, and submit it to their GP practice either in person or online.

NHS Shetland said patients will no longer be able to phone their practice to request an escort.

A patient travel survey conducted locally in 2015/16 saw some respondents suggest that escort policy needed to be applied more  “consistently and fairly”, which reflected previous feedback.

The heath board’s chief executive Ralph Roberts said: “We have been working with our clinicians for a while to agree the revised escort criteria and we believe this is now as self-explanatory and robust as we can make it.

“This should be a far more straightforward process for our patients and will also support our GPs in determining if an escort should be approved for those patients that are not automatically eligible but have support needs for off island appointments.

“We also hope that these changes will remove some of the perceived inequality regarding the approval of escorts. We will keep the revised process, and any feedback we receive about escort travel under review in the coming months.”

• To read NHS Shetland’s updated patient escort criteria, visit here.