THE number of complaints lodged following the change in operator for the patient transfer taxi service amounts to below 3 per cent of all journeys since the switch.

There were 24 complaints lodged with the Department of Health and Social Care in the first month after ComCab took over the contract to transfer patients to hospitals in the UK from Bridgewater Taxis on March 27.

During that time, the decision to switch has come under fire and also been the subject of numerous parliamentary questions.

Health Minister Kate Beecroft said: ’ComCab has undertaken 813 journeys so the level of complaints currently represents 2.9 per cent of the overall number of journeys made.

’Thirteen of these complaints referred to the use of black cab vehicles and most referred to the seating arrangements in the cab and the use of drop-down seats.’

Mrs Beecroft repeated her plea to patients due to travel to hospitals in the UK to advise the patient transfer service if they had difficulty travelling backwards on drop-down seats - or any other issue - and pledged it would be included in the booking details.

’We have also asked ComCab to try to ensure that it is the patients that go on the fixed seats of the cabs and that the escorts use the fold-down rear-facing seats wherever possible,’ she added.

’The department takes all complaints seriously and is working collaboratively with ComCab to address the specific issues that are being raised.’

The minister was responding to House of Keys questions from David Ashford (Douglas North).

After hearing Mrs Beecroft ask patients to give more information, he asked: ’Does the minister think that the onus that is being put on individual patients to effectively communicate to the department what their needs are, and indeed to assess what they might be post-operational, is reasonable?’

Mrs Beecroft (pictured) said the patient transfer team was prompting patients by asking if they had specific requirements, but added: ’Unless they tell us, we do not know.’

Mr Ashford also asked Mrs Beecroft if she had seen a video posted online of a taxi transfer journey and the movement in the back of the vehicle, ’which was affecting people not just in the fold-down seats but also actually in the fixed seats’.

Mrs Beecroft said she had seen the video.

’ComCab have confirmed that route will not be used again as it does contain a number of speed bumps and there is an alternative route available,’ she added.