HEALTH chiefs have vowed to find out how an 11-year-old boy missed his heart scan appointment due to a transport blunder.

Annette Holmes says her son, Teaga, was supposed to be taken from Worcestershire Royal Hospital to Birmingham Children's Hospital on Wednesday, March 29.

The Fort Royal Community Primary School pupil missed his appointment as no transport was arranged to take him to Birmingham.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs Worcestershire Royal, ended up paying for a taxi to take Teaga to to his rescheduled appointment the next day.

The West Midlands Ambulance Patient Transport Service is commissioned by Worcestershire’s Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – which hold the purse strings for NHS services in the county – to take patients on journeys both ways between their homes and Worcestershire Royal.

But inter-hospital trips are not part of the contract.

Teaga had used the patient transport service for a previous appointment in Birmingham just a few days before – leaving Ms Holmes wondering why it could not happen again.

West Midlands Ambulance Service says it offered to transport Teagan again as another "goodwill gesture" - but this was not taken up by the CCGs.

Ms Holmes, 52, of Popert Drive, in Worcester, said Teaga's heart scan was part of the hospital's attempt to diagnose his illness through a process of elimination.

He has now been treated for arthritis and has returned home, she added.

But she was left upset and disappointed after the confusion left Teaga stranded and unable to get to his original appointment.

"The nurses got onto them [the doctors] trying to get it sorted but in the meantime he missed his appointment at 3pm," she said.

"The sister of the ward said 'I've been trying to get this transport but they are refusing'.

"Her words were 'they are saying this is not our jurisdiction'.

"It's their job to transport patients like this. He has fever and can't walk. He has pain in his ankles, arms and joints."

The CCGs say they are investigating trying to find out what happened and how to prevent future issues.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said that, although the transport service is used to take hundreds of patients to and from Worcestershire Royal every day, inter-hospital trips are not part of its contract and must be authorised and paid for by the CCGs.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust said: “Unfortunately on this occasion the Patient Transport Service, commissioned by our local Clinical Commissioning Groups, was not able to assist as the contract doesn’t cover out of county travel.

“We then took the decision, after seeking clinical guidance on safety, to pay for a taxi to ensure that no further delay was experienced.”

West Midlands Ambulance Patient Transport Service employees 400 staff and has 320 vehicles to ferry people to their hospital appointments.