Fife Council’s wheelchair accessible bus service, Fife Bus, is now transporting patients to hospital for their regular kidney dialysis appointments.
The Scottish Ambulance Service reached out to the Council for help easing the pressure on their services and staff.
John Anderson, Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officer for the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “We worked with our renal patients and colleagues in NHS Fife to assess their individual needs and see if any were suitable for alternative transport as they needed to be fully mobile and independent.
“We held positive discussions with Fife Council and came up with a solution which suited all concerned."
On 21 April, Fife Bus started transporting renal patients to both the Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline and the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy. This transportation is available Monday to Saturday each week.
Tony McRae, Fife Council’s Service Manager for Passenger Transport explained: “We’re delighted to be able to help the Ambulance Service and NHS patients.
“Fife Bus provides wheelchair-accessible transport free-of-charge to individuals in the community who have difficulty using mainstream public transport. Due to social distancing guidelines we suspended this service early in the lockdown. So, being able to use our buses and staff to transport renal patients to hospital makes best use of our resources, benefitting many.
“For safety reasons we decided to allocate one driver to one vehicle; limiting the number of staff out in the community. Each driver is responsible for cleaning the vehicle and ensuring social distancing is maintained. Another benefit to this approach is continuity of care for the patients as they see the same driver each time.
“I want to thank the staff who have all embraced this new challenge. They see the importance of pulling together during this pandemic to help the most vulnerable in our communities.”
John concluded: “Fife Bus has allowed us to redeploy staff to the frontline and Fife Council’s help has been invaluable.
“Without the Scottish Ambulance Service being involved in the Local Resilience Partnership, this would not be possible. Thanks to all our colleagues at the Partnership - by working together we have the best chance of beating this virus.”