Some 11,000 patients each year - plus their escorts - are flown or travel by ferry for treatment or consultations at UK hospitals.

Given the scale of the operation, it’s perhaps a surprise that nobody has missed an appointment this year and there have been just 14 formal complaints.

But that’s not the impression you would get reading comments posted on social media.

Tammy Hewitt, head of commercial and business enterprise at the Department of Health and Social Care, admits there have been issues over the past 18 months or so.

But she insists the patient transfer team, working with airline Flybe and travel agency Mann Link Travel are committed to make the process as smooth as possible for patients and their escorts.

Mrs Hewitt said: ’Things do happen given the scale of the operation but we try to minimise issues as far as possible and we do try to learn from them.

’We take complaints very seriously and look at every one to see how we can improve.’

In total 17,000 return trips are booked each year by the patient transfer team.

Some 11,000 of these are patients.

Some 60% of patients have an escort. It is for the consultant, not the patient transfer office, to decide on medical grounds if the patient should have an escort, usually a family member.

About 75% of patient transfers are day trips.

Some 85% of all trips are to Liverpool, 10% to Manchester and 5% to other airports.

Flybe was awarded the patient contract for a further three years in March this year.

Mrs Hewitt said she had met with Flybe recently and had no concerns that it would meet its contract obligations despite the airline issuing a profit warning last month.

She said there were teething problems when ComCabs took over the contract in March last year to ferry patients from Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

ironed

But she said: ’We are confident we have ironed those problems out. We are not getting any complaints about ComCabs now.

’We went out to inspect the fleet of vehicles a month of so ago.’

She said patients’ main complaints were about accessibility but this had been dealt with by better communication. If patients have special requirements these are noted at the point of booking.

If they have other needs these can be raised with the driver on the day.

Mrs Hewitt said a major problem had been with patients failing to get through to the office on the telephone.

But there has been investment in a new system which filters out those who want booking information if a flight has been cancelled who can now access a voice mail message.

This has taken pressure out of the system so that the person who has just been discharged and who needs to get home can get through when they need to get through.

If a return flight is cancelled you will be booked on the next flight as part of Flybe’s contract. Patients affected should go to the Flybe desk.

If your outward flight is cancelled, you need to contact the hospital across to ask for another appointment.

Once you get a new appointment that can be sent by letter or email to the patient transfer office which will book you another flight.

Mrs Hewitt said there had been complaints following a spate of cancellations a few months ago.

She said: ’We have spoken to Flybe and we are working with them to see what we can do to make that process a little bit easier.

’We are aware that when a flight is cancelled other passengers will be at the front of the desk while our patients end up at the back of queue.’

She said Flybe are introducing an alert system later this month which will give warning when flights are cancelled or delayed.

Mrs Hewitt said to date this year some 14,000 people have been booked on return trips and there had been just 14 formal complaints and a further 21 informal complaints or queries.

She said that there had been an issue a few weeks ago when a patient turned up at Ronaldsway for their early morning flight only to find that they had been booked on a later flight.

appointment

The UK hospital made an appointment for later that day.

Since that incident, a schedule of all bookings are sent to the travel agent on a daily basis to check whether they tally with the booking made with Flybe.

Five people work in the patient transfer office, of which four are involved in off-island transfers.

In the summer that office was left short-staffed due to an unexpected absence and a vacancy that had yet to be filled.

But Mrs Hewitt rejected criticism of the temporary staff whose commitment she said had allowed patient transfers to be made during that period without any problems.

’They were fantastic. Nobody missed an appointment,’ she said. ’In fact, nobody has missed an appointment this year.’

Further improvements are expected with the introduction of a new IT system early in the new year.

The integrated system aims to minimise the risk of errors by marrying up flights and taxis needed with hospital appointments.