Revised taxi policy

There are some changes to the way colleagues can book and authorise taxis. The changes have been introduced to make it easier for our Trust to monitor the use of taxis which should only be used as a last resort, based on clinical need. These changes apply to colleagues and patient taxi bookings.

How to book a taxi

Transport bookings should be made through transport who will allocate the best transport for the journey. 

Please give the following information when booking:

  • Date and time when the taxi is required
  • Full name and contact number of the person making the request
  • The clinician authorising the taxi based on clinical need
  • Name of the ward /department/directorate making the booking and the site (e.g. ED at CRH)
  • Full name of the passenger
  • Reason for the booking / nature of the request
  • Pick-up location
  • Drop off location

Clinical Site Matrons may organise taxis to be shared where possible, so please be aware that non-urgent journeys may be asked to delay or advance their journey by a reasonable time. Patients must be informed that they may be sharing a vehicle, in case sharing a taxi may be inappropriate.

Who can use a taxi

  • Patients who need to be transported to/from another hospital for tests, who can’t use the non-emergency patient transport service (PTS).
  • In emergency situations where a colleague is called out and has no access to personal transport, and where using public transport would result in an unacceptable delay.
  • When a colleague is on duty and is required, at short notice, to report /work elsewhere and no other appropriate transport is available.
  • When a colleague needs to work at a base that is not their normal base, and alternative public transport would cause unacceptable delay.

Information about getting to our hospital for our patients can be found on our website - Finding us and car parking - CHFT

Thank you to colleagues for your support, with these changes we hope to be able to reduce our taxi spend by 25%.

Other updated policies 

Here is a brief description of recent policy changes. Please make yourself aware of the changes, as they may also impact training requirements.

Policies that have been added, updated or renewed within the last 30 days are all stored on the Recent Updates page of the Policies and Documents library. So you can find these documents there or search from the homepage.

COSHH Policy

  • Health and Safety procedures have been updated to reflect the change in service provision.
  • Health and Safety is now delivered by CHS through a formalised partnership agreement with CHFT.

Major Incident Plan

  • Moved CSM to tactical.
  • Removed ED Consultant from OOH strategic group.
  • Changed ED decant area / green zone to SDEC (CRH).

Evacuation and Shelter Plan

  • Updated to reflect change of location for Tactical Command, Incident Control Centre at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary - now Digital Command Centre, Integrated Flow Hub.

 Health and Safety Policy

  • Updated to reflect the merging of the H&S function within CHFT and CHS, rewritten for clarity and brevity-  describing H&S champion roles.

 Dysphagia Policy