The Transport to Healthcare Information Centre, THInC in the City, has been given a huge boost with the results of recent survey.
This popular service funded by, ACVO via the ‘Reshaping Care For Older People’ Change Fund, provides a valuable service for eligible citizens across the city that have particular conditions, which make using public transport quite difficult and challenging. The service has also been reducing the number of appointments not attended, reducing the number of missed appointments, mitigating wasted resources in terms of clinician’s time.
In a recent survey, carried out by ACVO TSI, 100% of passengers said that the service has given people more confidence in being able to travel to their appointments with 94% rating the service good or excellent. The helpfulness of the driver was also highly commended.
Passengers provided the following additional comments:
- “Taxis in Aberdeen are expensive and this service is very helpful”
- “This is an excellent service... long may it continue”…“The minibus is clean and comfortable”
- “The extremely nice lady who answers phone is so kind and also Mike, the driver very helpful, always a happy smile so friendly”
- “It allows my dad to attend activities run by Alzheimer Scotland which without THInC he would not be able to access”.
While THInC in the City is still in its early stages, over 400 people have already registered to use the service. Nearly 2000 trips have been made since March 2015, charged at an incredibly reasonable rate of 45p per mile. The average charge to passengers is around £2.00.
One of the schemes strengths is to employ hand-picked drivers who are specially trained in Dementia – Awareness, Falls Awareness and Adult Protection issues and have the necessary people skills to make sure an individual feels safe from pick up to drop off, even including providing a handy wheelchair if required, to get them to the right clinic on time.
The phone number for any citizen wishing to see if they are eligible to use THInC in the City service is: 01224 665568