NHS Staff, Patients & Healthcare Travel – Private Hire and Airport Transfers

For NHS staff

Private Hire for NHS Staff and Healthcare Workers

Hospital hours don't fit transport timetables. That's the whole problem, and it shows up in four recognisable ways.

Early morning shifts

A shift starting at 07:00 often means leaving home at 05:30, at which point bus frequency is thin and the first trains may not be running. Pre-booking removes the two things that go wrong at that hour: no car being available, and no way to tell whether one is coming.

Practical points for early bookings:

• Book the night before at the latest, and earlier for a run of shifts
• Give the hospital entrance or department, not just the hospital name — see the arrival section below
• If you're travelling before dawn from a residential address, tell us where you'd like to be collected from — the door, a lit street corner, wherever you'd rather wait
• Driver and vehicle details are shared ahead of travel where available, so you know who you're expecting

Late finishes and night shifts

The end of a shift is harder to plan than the start, because it moves. A handover that runs over turns a booked 21:30 pickup into a problem.

• Book with realistic slack rather than the theoretical finish time
• Tell us when you book if the finish time is likely to move, and we'll advise what flexibility is possible [CONTENT TEAM: confirm what the actual policy allows — waiting charges, amendment windows, cancellation terms]
• Fixed fares agreed in advance mean the 02:00 journey costs what the 14:00 journey costs — no surge pricing, where applicable

Weekends and bank holidays

Reduced timetables and engineering works land hardest on people whose work doesn't stop for either. If your rota covers a bank holiday weekend, book the journeys as a block rather than one at a time — it's less admin and it protects you against availability tightening.

Long-distance travel for training, meetings and assignments

Training days, regional meetings, interviews, temporary placements and professional events regularly mean travelling between towns and cities. We cover UK-wide private hire, including journeys between cities and to and from train stations where part of the trip is by rail.

We'll also tell you when the train is the better option. For some long routes it plainly is, and we'd rather say so than sell a four-hour transfer nobody needed.

Read this first

Before You Book: You May Not Need to Pay for This Journey

If you're a patient looking for transport to an NHS appointment, there are two things worth checking before you book any taxi. Most transport companies won't tell you this. We'd rather you knew.

NHS non-emergency patient transport

The NHS runs a non-emergency patient transport service for people who need help travelling to and from appointments for medical reasons — for example, where a condition or treatment makes travelling by other means unsuitable. It's free where you qualify, and eligibility is assessed on medical need rather than income.

It isn't arranged through a transport company. Ask the department that sent your appointment letter, your GP practice, or the number on the letter itself. There's general guidance on NHS.UK, but the department treating you is the one that can actually assess you.

Help with travel costs

Separately, the NHS runs a scheme that can refund travel costs to and from NHS-funded treatment for people receiving certain income-related benefits or on a low income. It generally applies where you've been referred for specialist treatment or tests, rather than to routine GP visits. Check the current position on NHS.UK or ask at the hospital — many have a cashier's office or travel costs desk that deals with this directly.

If you are not in England. Patient transport eligibility and help with travel costs are run separately in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with different rules and different application routes. The guidance linked above covers England. Elsewhere, ask the hospital or clinic treating you — they will point you to the right scheme for your nation.

Some hospital trusts and local charities also run volunteer driver schemes for patients who need them. Availability varies enormously by area, and the hospital is the place to ask.

Airport transfers

Airport Transfers for Healthcare Professionals and Visitors

Airport journeys in this category tend to be one of four things: a clinician flying to a conference, a visiting specialist arriving for a fixed commitment, an international healthcare professional coming to the UK for work or training, or a family member flying in because someone is unwell.

All four have the same requirement — arrive at a specific place, at a specific time, without improvising after a flight. A pre-booked transfer connects any London airport directly to hospitals, hotels, conference venues, universities, medical institutions, rail terminals and destinations elsewhere in the UK. See all London airport transfers.

Where the meet & greet option applies, your driver waits in arrivals with a name board. Where flight monitoring is available, the transfer follows your actual landing time rather than the schedule, and eligible airport bookings include complimentary waiting time of up to 60 minutes, subject to our booking terms. Journey times vary with traffic and time of day, so we quote against your specific date rather than a published average.

For patients

Transport to Planned Hospital Appointments

For a planned appointment — outpatients, a clinic, a diagnostic test, a specialist referral, a course of treatment — private hire gives you a door-to-door journey at a time you choose, with the fare known in advance.

It tends to be most useful when:

• The appointment is outside your area. Specialist referrals often mean a hospital you've never been to, in a city you don't know.
• You'd rather not drive. Hospital parking is expensive, frequently full, and sometimes a long walk from the department you need.
• Someone is coming with you. A family member or carer travels in the same car at no additional fare, subject to vehicle capacity.
• The journey home matters. Some appointments leave you unable or unwilling to drive afterwards. Booking the return at the same time removes that decision from a moment when you won't want to make it.
• The timing is tight. A missed appointment can mean months of waiting for another.

To be clear about what this is: RushXO provides ordinary private hire transport. Our drivers are professional drivers. They are not medical staff, they don't provide clinical assistance or personal care, and they can't take responsibility for a passenger's medical needs during a journey. If you need care or supervision while travelling, NHS patient transport is the service designed for that — see the section above.

The practical bit

Getting the Drop-off Right at a Hospital

More journeys go wrong at the hospital gate than anywhere else, and almost always for the same reason: a large hospital is not one address. Some sites cover a considerable area, with several entrances, separate buildings, and departments that share none of them.

The address on your letter may not be where you're going

Appointment letters often carry the trust's main address while the clinic itself sits in a different building, sometimes on a different street, occasionally on a different site entirely. Satnav takes the address it's given.

When you book, tell us:

• The hospital and the department or clinic name — "the Chest Clinic", "the Eye Unit", "Outpatients, Level 2"
• The building name if the letter gives one — many hospitals name buildings after people, and the names are on the signs
• The entrance you need if you know it — main entrance, a named wing, or "the entrance nearest the car park"
• Whether you need to be as close as possible to the door, which changes where the driver aims for

If you're not sure, the appointment letter's contact number is the fastest way to find out, and it's worth doing before the morning of the appointment rather than on it.

Drop-off restrictions

Many hospital sites have barriers, restricted access roads, timed drop-off bays, or clean-air charging zones. Where a vehicle can't reach a particular door, we'll get you to the nearest permitted point and tell you in advance rather than on arrival — so if the last hundred metres matters to you, say so when you book and we'll plan for it.

The return journey nobody plans

Appointments overrun. Clinics run late, tests get added, and a two o'clock discharge becomes four. This is the single most common reason a return journey falls apart.

• Book a return with a realistic time, not the time you hope to finish
• Tell us when you book that the time may move, and we'll explain what flexibility applies to your booking [CONTENT TEAM: confirm the amendment, waiting and cancellation policy and state it plainly here — this is the most-asked question in this section]
• Or book the return when you're finished, by phone or WhatsApp — subject to availability at that moment

If you're having sedation or an anaesthetic, check the escort rule first

This one catches people out more often than the overrun does. For day-case procedures involving sedation or a general anaesthetic — endoscopy, many minor operations, some dental and eye procedures — hospitals normally require a responsible adult to collect you and stay with you afterwards. A booked taxi on its own is usually not accepted, and a unit can decline to discharge you if nobody is travelling with you.

So before you book a car for the journey home:

• Read the instructions that came with your appointment — they normally say whether you need someone with you, and for how long afterwards
• If you do, book for two passengers, not one. A companion travels in the same vehicle at no additional fare, subject to capacity
• If you can't arrange an escort, tell the department before the day rather than on it. They can sometimes reschedule, use a different form of anaesthesia, or arrange NHS transport — none of which can be sorted out in a discharge lounge

We mention it because it's obvious to the hospital and invisible to everyone else until the morning it matters.

A worked example

One Appointment Day, Planned Properly

A patient travelling to a specialist appointment at a large teaching hospital in another city, with a family member accompanying them. Booked as one plan rather than two separate taxis.

Stage	Journey	What was decided in advance
Booking, days before	Both legs quoted together	Fixed fare agreed for each leg. Return booked with slack built in rather than at the appointment's scheduled end time.
Morning	Home → hospital, two passengers	Department and building name given at booking, not just the hospital. Driver aims for the right entrance first time.
Arrival	Drop-off at the nearest permitted point	Restricted-access road identified beforehand, so the walk was known in advance rather than discovered on the day.
Appointment overruns	Return time moves by an hour	Flagged at booking as a possibility. One phone call, no renegotiation of the fare.
Afternoon	Hospital → home	Same driver where possible, same pickup point, agreed fare unchanged.

Nothing in that day is complicated. It works because three things were decided before anyone left the house: the exact destination within the hospital, a return time with slack in it, and what happens if the appointment runs late.

Multi-site

Hospital-to-Hospital and Multi-Site Journeys

Plenty of healthcare work happens across more than one building. Planned journeys we're regularly asked to cover:

• Staff working across two or more sites in the same trust, or in different trusts
• Visiting specialists and consultants attending clinics or meetings at another hospital
• Healthcare professionals travelling to training at a different site
• Patients travelling to a scheduled appointment at another facility, where NHS transport doesn't apply
• Family members travelling between accommodation and a hospital during a long admission

Multi-stop journeys can be arranged where available — useful when a day covers two or three sites — and we'll quote the whole route as one booking rather than as separate journeys. Tell us the order and the time you need to be at each stop.

Work travel

Conferences, Training Days and Professional Events

Conference travel has a shape of its own: everyone arrives in the same window, the venue is somewhere nobody has been, and the first session starts whether or not the traffic cooperated.

We cover the whole pattern — airport to hotel, hotel to venue, venue to station, venue to airport — quoted as one itinerary rather than four bookings. See event transfers.

• Individual bookings for a single delegate, including expensed travel with a written fare for the claim
• Group travel where a department or team travels together — 8-seater vehicles available where the option applies
• Coordinated arrivals where colleagues land at different airports or times
• Executive vehicles where a journey runs straight into a session or a speaking commitment
• Multi-stop routes where available, for days that cover more than one location

Advance planning matters most around large conferences, when hotel districts get congested, venue drop-off points move, and vehicle availability tightens across a whole city for two or three days.

Booking for other people? Departments, PAs and event organisers regularly book on behalf of colleagues. Give us the traveller's name and contact number as well as yours — the driver contacts them, you get the confirmation. For organisations booking regularly, business accounts and invoicing are available.

Families & carers

Patients, Carers, Companions and Visitors

Some of the most useful journeys we do are for people who aren't the patient: a relative flying in, a carer accompanying someone to a clinic, a family visiting during a long admission and travelling between a hotel and a ward every day.

• Airport or station to hospital — for family arriving from elsewhere in the UK or abroad
• Accommodation to hospital and back — booked as a repeating pattern during a long stay if that's easier
• Hospital to station or airport — for the journey home
• Carer-accompanied journeys — a companion travels in the same vehicle at no extra fare, subject to capacity

When booking for someone else, the two details that matter most are an accurate pickup point and a contact number for the person actually travelling. If they have mobility requirements, tell us at the point of booking rather than on the day — see below.

Our drivers help with luggage and will wait at an agreed pickup point. They don't provide personal care, physical support with mobility, or any form of medical assistance.

Accessibility

Accessible and Assisted Travel

Accessibility requirements vary, and so do vehicles. The honest answer is that what we can arrange depends on your specific requirement, your location and your date — so the right move is always to tell us before booking rather than hope on the day.

Things worth telling us:

• Step-free access, or a vehicle that's easier to get into and out of
• A folding wheelchair, walking frame, crutches or other mobility aid travelling in the vehicle
• Extra time at pickup and drop-off, so nobody is rushed
• Assistance with luggage or with getting to the door
• An assistance dog travelling with you
• A companion or carer travelling in the same vehicle
• Where you need to be dropped — relative to a specific entrance

Call "020 8888 9988" or message WhatsApp before booking and we'll tell you honestly what we can and can't arrange for your journey. See also assisted and accessible travel.

Your information

Privacy: What a Booking Does and Doesn't Reveal

A destination can say more than you intend. A journey to an oncology unit, a fertility clinic or a mental health service carries an implication, and you shouldn't have to think about that when you're just trying to get to an appointment. So, specifically:

• We don't ask why you're going. We need an address and a time. The reason for the journey is not our business and isn't a field on the booking.
• Your driver gets the operational minimum — name, pickup, destination, time and any notes you've added as instructions. Nothing else.
• No health information is recorded. We don't hold notes about anyone's condition, treatment or reason for travel. A mobility requirement is recorded as a vehicle requirement, not as a medical detail.
• No flagging. Bookings aren't tagged or categorised by destination type, and nothing carries between bookings unless you ask us to save a preference.
• Retention. Booking records are kept for [X] as required for accounting and licensing, then deleted. Full detail in our privacy policy.
• Discretion at the door. If you'd prefer to be collected from a particular entrance, or somewhere less conspicuous than a clinic frontage, put it in the booking notes. No explanation needed.

Why pre-book

Why Pre-Booked Private Hire Suits Healthcare Travel

Ten practical reasons, most of which come down to removing decisions from moments when you don't want to be making them.

• Journey planning. Route, timing and destination agreed in advance, when you have time to think about them.
• Early morning travel. A car arranged for 05:00 doesn't depend on availability at 05:00.
• Late-night travel. The end of a night shift is the worst possible moment to be arranging transport.
• Fixed pricing where applicable. Agreed at booking, no surge pricing, no hidden costs — the same fare at 02:00 as at 14:00.
• Airport meet & greet. Available on eligible bookings, with a name board in arrivals.
• Flight monitoring where available. The transfer follows your actual landing time.
• Door to door. No interchange, no walking between platforms with luggage, no hospital car park.
• Group travel. A team travels together in one vehicle, with 8-seaters available where the option applies.
• Long-distance journeys. City-to-city travel across the UK in one leg.
• Advance booking. The fare, the vehicle and the driver details confirmed in writing before you travel.

Journey types

Example Journeys We're Asked to Cover

Examples of journey types, not fixed routes or scheduled services. Every booking is quoted individually against its own date, time and addresses.

• Heathrow Airport → a London hospital or teaching institution
• Heathrow Airport → a central London hotel before a conference
• Gatwick Airport → a London or south-coast hospital
• Luton Airport → central London
• Stansted Airport → a London or Cambridge healthcare facility
• London City Airport → a central or east London hospital
• Airport → conference or training venue
• Hotel → hospital, and back
• Hospital → train station
• Hospital → airport
• Home → hospital → home, booked as a return
• Hospital site → hospital site, for staff working across locations

Long-distance journeys between UK cities are quoted the same way — see UK-wide private hire and hotel transfers.

Booking

How to Book Healthcare Travel with RushXO

1. Tell us where you're being collected from

   A home address, a hotel, an airport terminal, a station, or a specific hospital entrance.

2. Give us the destination — precisely

   For hospitals, the department, building or entrance as well as the hospital name. This is the detail that most often decides whether the journey goes smoothly.

3. Choose the date and time

   Including a return if you need one. For appointments, build in slack rather than booking the optimistic finish time.

4. Add flight details if you're arriving by air

   Flight number and terminal, so the transfer can follow your actual arrival where flight monitoring is available.

5. Tell us about accessibility or vehicle requirements

   Mobility aids, extra time, luggage, an assistance dog, a companion travelling with you. Before booking, not on the day.

6. Confirm the quote

   Where fixed pricing applies, the quoted fare is the fare you pay.

7. Receive your booking and driver information

   Written confirmation with your reference, plus driver and vehicle details ahead of travel where available.

8. Meet your driver and travel

   At the agreed point, or in arrivals with a name board where meet & greet applies.

In summary

Why Choose RushXO?

What we don't claim: RushXO is not an NHS supplier, contractor or partner, holds no NHS approval, and does not provide medical transport, clinical assistance or emergency services. Where a page like this one is vague about that, ask why.

12 — Questions

NHS & Healthcare Travel FAQs

Can NHS staff book private hire with RushXO?

Yes — as an individual customer, in the same way as anyone else. We have no NHS contract, approval or supplier status, and we don't currently advertise an NHS discount. What we offer is pre-booked journeys at fixed fares where applicable, which is usually what matters most for shift travel at unsociable hours.

Can RushXO provide emergency or medical transport?

No. RushXO is a private hire company providing transport for planned journeys. We are not an ambulance service and provide no medical care, clinical assistance or supervision in transit. In a medical emergency call 999. For urgent non-emergency advice, call 111 in England, Scotland and Wales; in Northern Ireland contact your GP or the GP out-of-hours service. If a patient needs medical support while travelling, NHS non-emergency patient transport is the appropriate service — ask the department that arranged the appointment.

Can I book transport to a hospital appointment?

Yes, for planned appointments. Give us the department or building as well as the hospital name so the driver reaches the right entrance. It's also worth checking first whether you're eligible for NHS-arranged patient transport or for help with travel costs — both are covered near the top of this page.

What happens if my appointment overruns?

Tell us when you book that the finish time may move and we'll explain what flexibility applies to your booking. Alternatively, book the outbound journey now and call or message when you're finished to arrange the return, subject to availability at that time. [CONTENT TEAM: replace with the actual amendment, waiting and cancellation policy.]

Can I book an early morning taxi for an NHS shift?

Yes. Pre-booking is the point — a car arranged in advance doesn't depend on availability at 05:00. Book the night before at the latest, and consider booking a run of shifts as a block.

Can I book a late-night journey after a hospital shift?

Yes, with the fare agreed in advance. Build slack into the pickup time rather than booking your theoretical finish time, and tell us if the finish is likely to move.

Can I arrange a hospital-to-hospital journey?

Yes, for planned journeys — staff moving between sites, visiting specialists, or patients travelling to a scheduled appointment elsewhere who don't require clinical support in transit. Multi-stop routes can be arranged where available.

Can I arrange airport-to-hospital transport?

Yes, from any London airport and elsewhere in the UK. Give us the flight number and terminal, plus the hospital and the specific building or entrance at the other end.

Can I travel with a carer or family member?

Yes. A companion travels in the same vehicle at no additional fare, subject to capacity. Tell us the number of passengers when you book so we send a suitable vehicle.

Can I request an accessible vehicle?

Tell us your specific requirement before booking — step-free access, space for a mobility aid, extra time, an assistance dog — and we'll confirm honestly what we can arrange for your journey, date and location. [CONTENT TEAM: state plainly here whether wheelchair-accessible vehicles are offered. If not, say so and signpost an alternative.]

Can I book an 8-seater for a healthcare team?

Yes, where the option applies to your route and date. Give us passenger and luggage counts and we'll confirm availability.

Can I book on behalf of a colleague or a patient?

Yes. Provide the traveller's name and contact number as well as your own — the driver contacts them directly and you receive the confirmation. Business accounts and invoicing are available for organisations booking regularly.

Can I book a transfer between an airport and a hotel?

Yes, including the full conference pattern: airport to hotel, hotel to venue, venue to station or airport. Send the whole itinerary and we'll quote it as one plan.

Do you record why I'm travelling to a hospital?

No. We record an address and a time. We don't ask the reason for a journey, we hold no health information, and a mobility requirement is recorded as a vehicle requirement rather than a medical detail. Bookings aren't tagged by destination type.

How far in advance should I book?

For early-morning and late-night journeys, at least the day before. For airport transfers and conference travel, as soon as your dates are fixed. For hospital appointments, as soon as you have the letter — that's also when you're most likely to have the department details to hand.

13 — Important

Transport Services Statement

RushXO is not an NHS supplier, contractor or partner and holds no NHS approval or endorsement. References to the NHS on this page describe the passengers we carry and the destinations we travel to, not a commercial relationship.