Most patients unaware of NHS travel cost help despite 40-year-old scheme

Most people in Bucks have never heard of a 40-year-old NHS scheme designed to help with the cost of getting to hospital appointments, according to new research.

The Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) is intended to support people who have been referred for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests.

It’s designed for people who do not qualify for ambulance transport but may struggle to afford the journey.

HTCS is not a new scheme. It was formally established across the NHS in 1988 – making it nearly four decades old.

What has changed is the eligibility – this is linked to certain low-income benefits, including Income Support and some Universal Credit claimants.

The scheme allows patients to claim back reasonable travel costs to hospital or other NHS premises and in some cases, for children or carers, if they have a referral.

As long as people choose the cheapest suitable mode of transport they can (usually public transport) they can apply for reimbursement.

But despite this support being available for so long, awareness appears to be extremely low locally.

Healthwatch Bucks – the independent patient watchdog – struck up discussion groups to find out who knew about it, and discovered that every single participant hadn’t heard of the scheme.

The organisation also sent out a survey and found that 86 per cent of people responding hadn’t heard of it either.

Only four people said they had used the scheme – and two of them said the process should be simpler.

There were also widespread misunderstandings of what is on offer and how it works. Scores of people believed claims could be made online, which is not currently possible.

In addition, not many people were aware that carers’ travel costs could be included.

Meanwhile, the need for the service is clear; dozens of people said they were unable to afford to attend a hospital referral.

Yet almost half of people responding said they were unaware of any voluntary or subsidised transport schemes available locally.

Travel and parking costs were difficult to afford, they said; several people added that this limited their access to healthcare and increased their anxiety.

Three people said they had missed their medical appointment as a result.

The findings suggest a gap between need and awareness, concluded Healthwatch Bucks – and point to a need for clearer information and better promotion of this support.

This problem is likely to be broader than Bucks; other organisations have flagged problems elsewhere, but NHS England does not collect national patient-level data on uptake of HTCS.