Kidney patients in Fife get council help to attend dialysis appointments

Fife Council has stepped in to help transport patients to hospital for their regular kidney dialysis appointments.

The local authority's Fife Bus has been deployed following an approach from the Scottish Ambulance Service to help ease the pressure on their services and staff.

Over the past few weeks it has been taking patients to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, and Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline.

The transportation is available Monday to Saturday

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."

Fife Bus was available after the council suspended its usual services - free of charge help to people who struggle to use public transport - to comply with social distancing regulations.

Tony McRae, service manager for passenger transport explained: “We’re delighted to be able to help.

"Being able to use our buses and staff to transport renal patients to hospital makes best use of our resources, benefiting 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."

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