Trrl Lr 853

Inhabitants of rural areas experience travel difficulties because of long distances to hospital and poor public transport. Large hospitals which serve large catchment populations are likely to aggravate such difficulties. Other access problems are long journey times and high costs, where users do not have a car available; this deters some people (particularly visitors) from travelling. The future change in the hospital stock is likely to be limited; the potential for improvements in hospital access therefore lies in transport provision rather than in locational changes. Points suggested in the literature for further attention include the use of wider criteria for deciding hospital transport provision, improved coordination of existing public and hospital transport and additional subsidy for certain travellers, when resources permit