A big-hearted community group is appealing for volunteers to help it achieve its goal of getting West Dunbartonshire residents to and from hospital appointments.

West Dunbartonshire Community Transport has been running since 2019, but the big plans they had for the service were halted due to the Covid pandemic.

It was set up to help get those who find it difficult to get to primary care or hospital consultations due to travel struggles with public transport.

The service is free, and speaking to the Post, volunteer John Hainey said less mobile residents badly need its services to attend units and clinics that may not be within easy transport reach.

He said: “NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde started moving units about because as far as they are concerned, you should be able to go to, for example, to Stobhill Hospital, even the RAH (Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley).

“They started up a minor injuries unit a few years back, the minor injury for Clydebank is the Vale of Leven.

“If you ask most people in Clydebank where the Vale of Leven hospital was, they wouldn’t know.”

The service helps patients reach regular or follow-up appointments if they’d find it difficult or impossible to do so themselves – and also helps take some of the pressure off the already overstretched Scottish Ambulance Service.

“We’re not an emergency service," John says: "You can’t phone us up and get transport tomorrow, but if you find yourself in any of these hospitals, Paisley, Glasgow, Stobhill etc, and you’ve got to go back, you contact us,

"Even if it’s a weekly appointment you’ve got, we’ll try and sort you out. 

“What that needs is volunteers.”

Although called volunteers, there is a small payment of 25 pence per mile to those willing to give a few hours and help and drive patients from their doorstep at their home to whatever hospital the patient needs to get to.

Andy Sinnott, who gives up a few hours of his week to drive service users around, said: “One thing I’ve noticed from the people I’ve driven is the way the hospital set-ups are all dispersed around.

“You might be going to Stobhill for one thing and the health centre for another thing, so it may be convenient for the health service to be arranged that way, but it puts all the hassle onto the user of the system.”

The service transported 13 people during April, its first month back in operation after the easing of Covid rules, with six in the next week or so after that.

And Andy and John said that if they can get more people helping alongside the two other volunteers, they can expand what the service offers beyond just hospital visits.
“We have other plans,” John said. 
“To jump forward two or three years, what we would be looking for is to provide this service and others like a ‘shopper hopper’, taking people to the shops that maybe can’t go themselves.
“It’s going to spread as and when we can find the vehicles and the volunteers.”

If you can help as a volunteer – or if you think the service could help you – give the charity a call on 07990 825 754 or email wdctag@gmail.com.