Wheelchair home visit criteria

Doncaster wheelchair services aim to provide high quality care to patients.

If you think you may be eligible for a home visit, please read this leaflet before making the request.

Benefits of attending a clinic appointment

• The clinic offers specialist treatment and has diagnostic equipment that is not available for home visits.
• You will be examined in a specialist environment designed to ensure you are comfortable during your review or assessment with all necessary equipment available to help in this process.
• There is the opportunity for changes and adaptations to be made to the provision during your clinic appointment thanks to the on-site workshop and technicians.

Providing appointments at patients homes when appropriate is an important part of our service.

Recent research shows that healthcare professionals are at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders, such as back, shoulder, neck, wrist, hand, hip and knee problems. These risks are much greater for staff when providing care in a patient’s home.

To provide patients with safe and effective care and minimise the risk of injury to our staff, we need to ensure they work in a suitable environment.

Due to travel time to accommodate for home visits, the number of patients who can be seen in one day significantly reduces, which means increasing waiting times.

Patients eligible for a home visit

The following criteria for a home visit are based on the Department of Health eligibility criteria for patient transport services.

Following consultation, this criteria has been adopted by Doncaster wheelchair service.

You may be considered for a home visit if either or both of the following apply:

• it would be detrimental to your condition or recovery if you were to travel to the clinic
• your medical condition affects your mobility so you are unable to travel without using an ambulance, for example unable to take a car or taxi

Patients not eligible for a home visit

You will not be eligible for a home visit if you are able to go out either by taxi, private car, motorised scooter, bus or use the community transport bus to visit any of the following:

• GP
• shops
• relatives
• pick up your pension or benefits payments
• hairdresser or barber
• dentist or optician
• phlebotomist or nurse
• luncheon club or day centre

In these circumstances, you will be asked to attend your clinic appointment for your wheelchair or seating assessment and review.

Getting to the clinic

• Use public transport. Information on public transport for South Yorkshire can be obtained from Travel South Yorkshire, and provides details on bus, tram, and train travel in South Yorkshire. Routes, maps, live departure times, planning a journey, ticket information and travel times.
• Use or share a taxi or Uber.
• Family and friends are often willing to help.
• Combine a clinic appointment with another trip such as shopping, personal or health appointments like going to the doctor or hairdresser.
• Leger Bus is a transport company operated by a variety of routes to transport passengers to a range of locations.
• There are wheelchair taxis available.
• Contact a local voluntary agency that may operate a voluntary driver scheme. Depending on your situation, and where you live, you can also find voluntary organisations that can help you get to hospital. For example, the Royal Voluntary Service put older people who struggle to get to hospital in touch with local volunteer drivers.
• NHS funded transport (ambulance or NHS car); if you think you are appropriate for ambulance transport, you will need to meet the following criteria set by the Department of Health and Social Care. Eligible patients are those:
  • whose medical condition is such that they require the skills or support of patient transport service (PTS) staff on or after the journey and, or where it would be detrimental to their condition or recovery if they were to travel by other means
  • whose medical condition impacts on their mobility to such an extent that they would be unable to access healthcare and, or it would be detrimental to their condition or recovery to travel by other means
  • recognised as a parent or guardian where children are being transported

If you receive the high-rate mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance or War Pensioners Mobility Supplement you are expected to use this to pay for your transport costs to clinic.

If it is considered that you do not meet the criteria for a home visit and wish to appeal, your details will be passed to the patient advice and liaison service (PALS).

Page last reviewed: August 05, 2026
Next review due: August 05, 2027