If you’re referred to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests by a doctor, dentist or another primary care health professional, you may be able to claim a refund of reasonable travel costs under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS).
Who can claim for help with travel costs?
To qualify for help with travel costs under the HTCS, you must meet 3 criteria:
- At the time of your appointment, you or your partner (including civil partners) must receive one of the qualifying benefits or allowances listed on this page, or meet the eligibility criteria for the NHS Low Income Scheme.
- You must have a referral for specialist care from a healthcare professional to a specialist or a hospital for further NHS treatment or tests (often referred to as secondary care).
- Your appointment must be on a separate visit to when the referral was made. This applies whether your treatment is provided at a different location (hospital or clinic) or on the same premises as where the GP or another health professional issued the referral.
Children and other dependants
You can claim travel costs for your children if you’re eligible for any of the benefits described under condition 1 and your child has been referred for treatment as outlined in condition 2 and condition 3 above.
If your child is aged 16 or over, they may make their own claim under the Low Income Scheme.
Carers and escorts
You can claim travel costs for an escort if your healthcare professional says it’s medically necessary for someone to travel with you.
Some integrated care boards (ICBs) may accept claims for help with travel costs if you’re the parent or guardian of a child under the age of 16 who you have to bring with you to your appointment.
These payments are made on the basis of the patient’s eligibility for the scheme, irrespective of the escort’s eligibility.
Who cannot claim help with travel costs?
You cannot claim help with travel costs if you’re visiting someone in hospital.
You also cannot claim if you’re visiting a GP, dentist or another primary care service provider for routine check-ups or other services, such as vaccinations or cervical cancer screening, as these are excluded from the scheme.
Urgent primary care services during out-of-hours periods (between 6.30pm and 8pm on weekdays, weekends or bank holidays) are also excluded.
What form of transport can I use?
The NHS organisation handling your claim will normally base any refund on what would have been the cheapest suitable mode of transport for your circumstances.
This can include your age, medical condition or any other relevant factors, such as the availability of public transport.
This means you should use the cheapest, most appropriate means of transport, which in most cases will be public transport.
If you travelled by car and your claim was approved, you’ll be reimbursed for the cost of fuel at the mileage rate used by your local integrated care board (ICB).
You may also be able to claim for unavoidable car parking and toll charges.
If you need to use a taxi, you should agree this in advance with the hospital or ICB before you travel.
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