Journal Staff
Lambton Elderly Outreach has launched a program to make non-emergency hospital trips easier.
The initiative offers seniors and people with disabilities transportation from home to hospital, from hospital to home, and from hospital to hospital.
The ‘stretcher’ van is a 2017 Dodge Caravan outfitted to carry a gurney or two wheelchairs.
Each trip includes two attendants certified in First Aid, CPR, with training in oxygen handling and lifting techniques, said CEO Bill Yurchuk.
The non-urgent stretcher van joins the agency’s fleet of 16 accessibility vehicles equipped for wheelchairs, walkers and scooters. But unlike the new one, they don’t travel outside of a 160-kilometre radius and they aren’t designed for a gurney, Yurchuk said.
For rates, which vary depending on distance, and booking information, call 519-845-1353.
Lambton Elderly Outreach services 2,700 clients with transportation, meals-on-wheels and various home maintenance and home-care programs.