More children were seen at hospital visits in Birmingham thanks to new study
The project is run by Birmingham Women's and Children's hospitals
Last updated 14th Feb 2023
A new scheme run by Birmingham Women's and Children's hospitals (BWC) has helped more disadvantaged children get to hospital appointments.
The initial eight-week pilot project contacted families about their appointment and offered free transport to the hospital, including free parking at the hospital site, public transport tickets, and taxi services if needed.
It meant less children missed their appointments and more were seen on the waiting lists. With 90% of the study group taking up the offer of help with travel and another 140 appointments were reallocated.
Kerri Pointon, mum to Travis, who took up the scheme, said: “The initiative is absolutely great, and well needed at the moment. It really helps when you pay for the travel up front as some families just can’t afford to claim the money back afterwards. The team who arranged this for us were lovely, and did everything they could to help.”
A short research project found that the average cost for a family to attend medical appointments is over £35. This can create barriers to accessing services, particularly for those experiencing financial hardship. Every year over 4.6% of appointments are missed at BWC costing the Trust around £3.6million.
Ally Davies, Assistant Director of Quality Improvement, said: "Communication has been absolutely fundamental. I truly believe that the pilot was successful because of the conversations that we had with families.
"This initiative pays for itself because we are having less wasted appointments, so it covers the cost of us doing it.
"We've actually got a perfect initiative, one that helps our organization to fill it's appointments and see children in the time that we need to, and one that helps families that need the support the most.
"With the cost of living, we don't ever want to put our families in a scenario where they're having to choose between heating the home or bringing their child to an appointment. So anything we can do to help, to take that pressure away from them, then we certainly will try," she said.
A second phase of the study started in November 2022 and will run until the end of March 2023 to help more patients in those identified areas across Birmingham and Solihull.
The Trust also hopes to extended the scheme across the women’s and mental health services.