Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) is launching a shuttle bus service for the community June 4 that will allow riders to do things such as get groceries, do pharmacy runs, and banking.
It will be for people in Haliburton, Minden, Wilberforce, Carnarvon and West Guilford areas, with each community getting services once a month on Wednesdays.
People will have to book ahead and the cost is $15 for a round-trip.
HHHS’ Amanda Rowden, who is client service manager community support services and community liaison, said it is a six-month pilot project.
“We recognized that transportation’s been a long-standing challenge in our County,” Rowden said.
She added with the recent addition of two new vans to their fleet; community support services saw an opportunity “to trial a new approach.”
The pilot was developed in response to their client satisfaction surveys, she added. “Particularly seniors and adults living with disabilities…it seems to be identified on every survey, or mostly every survey, that transportation is a major barrier.
“I get more and more calls from isolated seniors in our community saying, ‘I can’t even get to the food bank. How can I get a ride to get my blood work done and it’s covered, but I can’t get food.’ That’s really where this came from and I really hope that there’s a positive reaction and I really hope we’re able to continue it, but it will depend on the pilot.”
Rowden said as community support services, under the hospital umbrella, they are similar to Community Care in Lindsay, and other areas, that offer shuttles to help people with groceries.
“We’ve always been limited to medical transportation because our fleet was limited and we had to guarantee we could get clients to medical appointments, but with the increased fleet, we’re really privileged to be able to try something new.”
Rowden said she pitched the idea to Jennifer Burns-West, chief nursing executive and vice president clinical and community support services, as well as president and CEO Veronica Nelson and, “they thought it was a good time to do it and they were really positive about thinking outside of the box and just trying to meet the community’s needs, which is really refreshing, and I’m really excited.”
She said they may discover through the pilot “maybe it’s too much. We don’t know what it’s going to look like, so we just wanted to think outside the box.”
The new van that will be used for the trial is an eight-seat passenger van. Rowden said it is wheelchair accessible. If two wheelchairs are onboard, it might mean an additional six passengers. She said it is also walker-friendly.
The schedule is week one Haliburton, week two Minden, week three Wilberforce, and week four Carnarvon/West Guilford.
Rowden said riders have to sign up by 4 p.m. the Monday before the Wednesday shuttle bus day.
HHHS will use an app called ‘route optimizer’ for efficient pick-ups and drop-offs. They’ll pick people up at their homes, drop them off at the grocery store and pharmacy, then pick them back up again and take them home. She said people will have to pay the driver.
With Carnarvon and West Guilford, they will take people to and from Haliburton. She added with Wilberforce, they would also pick up in Highlands East villages, such as Highland Grove and Gooderham.
She said they will be looking for client feedback as the pilot unrolls.
Pre-registration are required by emailing transportation@ hhhs.ca.
“So far, it’s been really well-received,” Rowden said. “We’ve been getting lots of calls looking for information.”
