Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire

NHS Lanarkshire is working with local charity LifeSavers Scotland to help patients get to community assessment centres if they don’t have their own transport.

The non-profit charity, based in East Kilbride, usually provide support to NHS Lanarkshire during the out-of-hours period. This normally includes transporting goods including medical records and blood samples between NHS sites. But in these unprecedented times they have stepped-up and are also transporting patients.

The charity’s volunteers are now running three patient transport vehicles 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a week to bring suspected COVID-19 patients to their local community assessment centre if they are unable to make their own way.

The vehicles, kindly donated by the Arnold Clark branch in Peel Park, East Kilbride, are fitted with a bulkhead partition to meet COVID-19 standards and to ensure driver and patient safety. Drivers pick up patients from their homes and take them to the assessment centre and, if needed, take them home.

There is a strict cleaning regime between journeys which the drivers carry out before picking up the next patient.