Dale volunteer driver scheme may be replaced

A BARNARD Castle-based transport scheme, relied on by patients across the dale, may be replaced with a county-wide service after council chiefs decided to cut its funding.

Trevor Goodge

The service is operated by the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP) North East, which is part of Volunteering Matters – a national training and volunteering charity. A team of 15 volunteer drivers work together to make sure elderly patients in Teesdale, without any other means of transport, get to their medical appointments.
Over the years, this has been made possible through funding from Durham County Council. But that funding is due to end on March 31.
The council says it would rather have a service covering the whole of the county, not just one based in Teesdale.
Chiefs say services are too fragmented. However, talks are still ongoing about a replacement service and how it would run. Trevor Goodge, of Startforth, has been the volunteer organiser as well as a driver for the scheme for the past three years. He is worried about the future.
He said: “Think about what it is doing to the patients?
“They need to get to hospital for specialist treatment whether that be for chemotherapy or heart treatment. It is more worrying for them if they can’t get there.
“There is no public transport out there especially for early appointments but if you were going for chemotherapy you would not want to go by public transport. It would cost them a fortune in a taxi and NHS transport is overstretched as it is.”
The service provides transport to any medical appointments including those at Darlington Memorial Hospital, Bishop Auckland Hospital, University Hospital of North Durham and James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. Patients aren’t charged for the journey but donations are also relied upon by the service.
Mr Goodge said: “Over the last three years we have done about 3,000 journeys. We have never missed one appointment. We have not cost the NHS a penny in that respect.
“For every £1 that is donated to us, it would cost the NHS transport service five times that amount.”
With a large number of regulars who depend on the service, Mr Goodge says he would hate to have to let people down.
He said: “We are relied on month in month out by people. We take people, wait for them and bring them back.
“Where would some of them be if we could not take them? We are well supported by the community with the care homes, surgeries and individuals who use us.”
Chief executive of Volunteering Matters Oonagh Aitken said: “Volunteering Matters has delivered a volunteer driver scheme in the area for over 20 years, reliant on funding from Durham County Council and service user donations.
“The funding from Durham County Council is due to end on March 31. However, Volunteering Matters and the charity Supportive are working in partnership with the council and North Durham and Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Groups to develop a service that continues to meet the needs of those that need it the most.”
Gill O’Neill, Durham County Council’s interim director of public health, said: “At the moment there are two non-emergency patient transport services in County Durham provided by volunteer drivers from Supportive and Volunteering Matters, along with a Hospital Link service that only covers the east of the county and the Durham Dales.
“Unfortunately, it was found that it is no longer viable to support multiple fragmented services.
“Instead, a new single volunteer driver service providing transport for healthcare appointments is being pursued, serving the whole of County Durham.
“We are, therefore, working closely with the two clinical commissioning groups covering County Durham, as they look to commission a new, single service, from April 1 this year. Negotiations are still taking place in relation to the operation of a new service.
“We expect these discussions to reach a positive conclusion shortly, enabling details of the outcome to be announced.”