People across York and North Yorkshire are finding it harder to reach vital medical appointments because of recent national changes to patient transport services. Local Healthwatch want to understand the impact of this on people’s health.

In April 2025, national rules for free non-emergency patient transport, mainly provided by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, changed. For many, this meant losing access to the transport they relied on to reach hospital and clinic appointments. Without free transport, some people are having to pay for taxis they can’t afford, depend on others, or miss appointments.

Healthwatch York and Healthwatch North Yorkshire have launched a survey to find out more. They want to understand who has been affected by the changes and what this means for them.

Nationally, in 2021/22, 7.6% of outpatient appointments in England ended in a ‘did not attend’. This equates to around 650,000 missed appointments every month across the country. Transport is one of the reasons people cannot attend and Healthwatch is worried that the changes will mean more people don’t go to appointments costing the NHS money and impacting on their health.

Siân Balsom, Healthwatch York manager, said: “We have already heard from people who have been affected. One person who is a wheelchair user is considering not going to any more appointments. They can’t use community transport and the options for taxis are so limited that if an appointment clashes with school times, all the wheelchair accessible taxis are being used. Another person raised concerns that the new service only drops you at the front door of the hospital or clinic rather than escorting you to appointments. They challenged this as they are blind and were told they either had to make their own way or ask the hospital to arrange help.

“Everything we’ve heard so far indicates that more and more people will have no option but to miss appointments. Something they and NHS staff don’t want to happen. We urge anyone who has or does use patient transport to get in touch to share their experience.”

The survey is anonymous and can be completed by people affected, carers or organisations who support people: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/X6GOMW/

People can also email their experiences to healthwatch@yorkcvs.org.uk or call 01904 621133.

There is more information about eligibility for patient transport at: https://www.yas.nhs.uk/our-services/patient-transport-service-pts/eligibility/