Your journey with YAS
When you request transport, you will be asked a series of questions that will help us to decide whether you meet the eligibility criteria set by the Department of Health and Social Care. The questions will also help us to decide on the level of support that you will need in order to get you to your destination safely and comfortably.
You’ll be given a time for collection so you know when to expect your transport to arrive for you.
If you aren’t eligible for transport we can provide information on alternatives.
We ask that you are ready two hours prior to your collection time. If you have been sent a letter about your appointment, or you have an appointment card, please have it with you on the day. Make sure you remember to bring any medication, equipment or samples relating to your appointment – you will have been notified about these by the department who arranged your appointment.
We provide a range of different vehicle types and levels of care and will match these to your medical needs using the answers you provide at the time of booking. You can expect to see any one of the following:
- A Yorkshire Ambulance Service employee (wearing green trousers and a green shirt) in an ambulance. This ambulance might have a ramp and/or tail lift, it may be able to accommodate a patient on a stretcher and/or bariatric patients.
- A Yorkshire Ambulance Service employee (wearing green trousers and a green shirt) in a car with our logo on the side.
- One of our volunteers in their own car (wearing a Yorkshire Ambulance Service polo shirt).
- One of our partner providers (wearing their own company uniform) in an ambulance with the various capabilities listed above.
- A quality-assured taxi driver in a car or minibus.
Lots of our vehicles are ‘dementia friendly’ and we are working hard to ensure our entire fleet is welcoming for all of our patients.
Our PTS staff are trained in driving, assisting/lifting patients on and off vehicles, and in customer care. They understand how to assist those with physical disabilities and/or mental health conditions.
Our vehicles have communications equipment on board to allow staff to maintain contact with the PTS Communications Centre and to navigate in any area. In case of an emergency our staff carry supplies to administer first aid and basic life support.
You are expected to be ready for travel at the agreed time and be polite and respectful to our staff, volunteers and your fellow passengers. Yorkshire Ambulance Service has a zero-tolerance approach to any acts of violence or aggression.
Eating and drinking is not permitted in PTS vehicles, except where you have a medical need, for example if you have diabetes.
You may travel on your own or with other patients. This will depend on the demand being placed on the service at the time. As a result, your journey length and the route you take to your destination may vary.
Take a look at our patient charter to see what you can expect from our service.
We will take you to the part of the hospital you are visiting and escort you to the waiting area, booking you in if necessary. If hospital porters are available they may escort you instead, allowing us to help other patients.
From the point at which we are notified you are ready for collection, you shouldn’t be waiting for us for any longer than 90 minutes.
If your journey is ‘unplanned’, for example, if your journey is following a discharge from hospital or admittance to hospital following a GP appointment, we aim to collect you within two hours of the booking.
We will help you from the vehicle, back into your home and ensure you are safe and settled.
An escort is a person (healthcare professional, relative or carer) who accompanies an eligible patient on their journey in order to provide particular skills or support that Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff are not able to. For example, an escort would be permitted to accompany a patient who has a physical or mental incapacity, or to act as a translator.
A parent or guardian of a patient under the age of 16 years is also considered to be an escort.
Assistance dogs may travel with patients but they must always be booked for travel. If you don’t tell us about an assistance dog we may have to cancel our journey as he or she can only travel in certain vehicles and may take up space that is allocated to another patient.
Please note:
- If an escort has not been booked to travel with a patient in advance, they will not be able to travel on the day.
- If a patient is admitted to hospital or has their return journey cancelled for any other reason, we are not able to take any escort back to the pick-up address.
- Patients and their escorts will be picked up and dropped off at the same, planned address. We are unable to collect from, or drop-off to multiple destinations.
- Assistance dogs should be treated as an escort and booked to travel on every occasion.
If you have any queries about escorts, please contact our reservations team on 0330 678 4000.
If you are taken ill during your journey our staff are trained to assist with a range of urgent and life-threatening circumstances. We are also supported by A&E crews that our staff can request at any time.
