Transport Service frequently asked questions

No. The service is completely free to both the patient and the hospital with the Irish Cancer Society incurring all costs. The costs of running this award winning service are paid for by the wonderful commitment of our dedicated fundraisers and supporters!

The Transport Service accommodates patients undergoing chemotherapy in one of our 25 partner hospitals or those attending radiotherapy in Galway University Hospital or The Lodge in St. Luke’s, Rathgar (see explanation above). 

• Once a patient is referred to the service by the hospital, they are contacted by the office team and sent a Welcome Pack. In this initial contact, the patients first appointment is taken (it is then up to the client to contact the office team (01 2310 522) regarding all subsequent appointments.
• Once an appointment has been made, a driver is sourced from our database (this is done mainly by geographic proximity to the client). The driver is then given the details of the clients and they contact them two working days before the appointment to re-confirm details.
• On the day of the drive, the driver arrives at the patient home at the agreed time, picks the patient up and drops them to the hospital door. The patient attends the hospital for treatment and, when they are ready to go home, they call the driver who then goes back to the hospital to collect them. The driver drops the patient home. 

To access the Transport Service, you must be referred by a healthcare professional (social worker or oncology nurse) to one of our partner hospitals.

The driver has the information needed to do the drive – namely,  the clients name, address, contact details and next of kin. The only other information that the driver will have is whether a client needs assistance getting in and out of the car. If that is the case, a companion will need to accompany the client as the driver cannot lift or handle the client in any way.

No, the service is one-on-one. There is only one client in the car with the driver at a time—no one else. The only time another person is in the car is when the client brings a companion—sometimes, a client will bring a companion with them for physical or emotional support. 

The Transport Service is expanding to new hospitals all the time. As of August 2019, the Transport Service is available in 30 hospitals around Ireland, with the service set to be continuously rolled out over the coming years .

Follow this link for the full list of hospitals in which the Transport Service is currently available. 

There are a number of reasons why people might need the support of the Transport Service:

• Patients are living on their own with little or no immediate family support.  
• The patient's family is not in the immediate vicinity.  
• The patient's family cannot take time off work to take them to and from the hospital (since the start of the recession, people were often afraid to take time off work).
• Patients are elderly and cannot drive (and their spouses cannot drive).
• The treatment is too aggressive and the patient has been advised not to drive.

Contact the Transport Service Team at the Irish Cancer Society by emailing Monica at volunteer@irishcancer.ie and we will send you an application form. The requirements of the volunteer role are that you must have a valid email address; a roadworthy car; valid insurance / NCT / driving licence; be willing to commit to a minimum of 2-3 days per month (Mon-Fri); agree to attend annual Support & Supervision sessions.

Yes, volunteers are interviewed, trained, garda checked, reference checked (x 2) and their documentation is collected (driving licence, NCT, etc) and attached to their record. There are also asked to attend one Support and Supervision session annually.

Yes, we offer to pay all fuel costs, road tolls and we offer €8 towards subsistence.

If the client requires assistance getting in and out of the car, they will need to bring a companion with them. Our drivers are not trained in manual handling and as such are not permitted to lift a client.

Treatment times can vary hugely and the driver cannot accompany the patient into their appointment. As a driver we ask that you keep that day as flexible as possible and that you make plans to keep yourself occupied while the client is receiving  treatment. You could visit relations or friends, go shopping or play nine holes of golf!

Contact-wise, we are an interactive, communicative lot in the office so expect to be in contact with us regularly (or more specifically, we'll be in contact with you!). You can expect an email every day (Mon - Fri) with our list of drives for three days time, sometimes two emails if we're stuck. Although we ask that drivers give us their availability on their application form (eg. every second Thursday, fully flexible etc), the main purpose of the service is to get the patient to the hospital so we might still call. However, if you can't do a drive just say 'No'. As drivers are not partnered with particular patients, drivers dictate their availability to us and we are fully flexible around that.  

We partner with a number of hospitals every year to roll out the service. If a hospital is interested in applying then they must contact Gail on (01) 231 0566 or email gflinter@irishcancer.ie. 

Each hospital is different and we look at all hospitals on an individual basis. The main responsibility of the hospital is for the nurses and / or social workers to agree to send in referrals on behalf of patient's. As all patient referrals come through our partner hospitals, we ask that the partner hospital sign an agreement to that effect.