LBVPT - Leighton Buzzard Voluntary Patient Transport

03/08/2026

One of the biggest issues facing Leighton Buzzard residents is the need to travel long distances to hospitals and community health facilities across a wide area for diagnostic and other needs. Whilst some of these do need to be done in a main hospital others can be and are done in community health facilities or those set up by contractors to the NHS to do work to reduce waiting lists. Things like sonograms and echocardiagrams. However there are no facilities doing this sort of thing in Leighton Buzzard. The new LB Heath Clinic in Bassett Road will do blood tests and now diabetic retinopathy checks which is some benefit I suppose. But patients are being referred for sonograms to a clinic in Silsoe, which is a 38 mile round trip and is effectively impossible by public transport.

Whilst there is nothing in Leighton Buzzard there are six community health faicilities in Milton Keynes not counting the hospital. THere is however a facility in Dunstable at the Grove View Hub. This is the nearest one to Leighton but is very underutilised and has a small range of services.

To highlight this we have in consultation with Leighton Linslade Health Matters decided to encourage greater use of the Hub. This will take the form of not seeking a donation for trips there from now until further notice. This is being funded by our reserves anfd in particular a generous donation from David Bligh's mayoral charity. Do not worry about our drivers, they will continue to receive full expenses for the journeys they undertake.

So if you have a referral to Grove View Hub please contact us on 07873497633 and our lovely call handlers will fix you up. But keep your hand in your pocket.

25/07/2026

A good day at the Canal Festival today where we're together with Leighton linslade Health matters. It was great to meet so many of you during the day in beautiful weather. We were able to spread word of what we do and may have some new clients and especially hopefully some new drivers.
Also handing out new editions of the Yellow book

09/07/2026

Stats update incoming!

May and June saw a steadying of the previous increases year on year with both months at last years levels. May was 176 one booking down on 2025 and June at 184 exactly the same.

In other news we have given our website a rebuild and it is still at its usual place on www.lbvpt.co.uk
This is still very much a work in progress and we would appreciate your input on what you think about it. Easy to navigate and read? Features you would like. Mugshots of drivers? Or not!

30/06/2026

To all of our clients who may be getting these texts please contact us for your transport if you need us.

If you get a text from Bedfordshire hospitals new patient portal don't worry - it's not a scam

02/06/2026

Temporary profile pic for Pride.

23/05/2026

As he is unchained we would like to offer our thanks the now ex Town Mayor David Bligh for his generosity and support for our organisation.. Especially the large donation from his charity fund that will help us to upgrade our database and ease call handlers tasks.

Also welcome.e to new Town Mayor Kevin Pughe who we look forward to working with.

Here is David presenting a suitably large cheque resulting from the quiz night fundraiser earlier in the year.

15/05/2026

The figures are in for March and April.
In March we had 175 bookings a 10% increase on March 25. April was 167, a 13% increase on April 25.
For the first 4 months of the year 681 which is 12.5% up on 2025.

Most popular was L&D at 220 (246 counting some offsite departments). MK came in at 192 and Stoke Mandeville 102. So approx 80% to these 3 hospitals and the rest is more distant hospitals and clinic/diagnostic centres.

Is this rise inexorable? Well clearly demand is steadily rising but can we meet it? Averaged out this level is about 8 trips a day since most are weekdays. We have 32 drivers. However driver availability is about 50% on a typical day as they only do the days when they don't have other commitments, and some are ill or recovering from operations. Also there is a pretty high variance on the average daily number so that on19 May we have had 19 requests but 16 drivers available. Our call handlers are doing wizardry to fit clients into multiple trips if possible. Drivers will sometimes do more than one trip per day but with the level of uncertainty over how long a client will be in the hospital this is not often practical, with even a short appointment taking 2 to 3 hours out of a day. So some people may be disappointed.

Want to help to be part of the solution? The more driver volunteers the easier it becomes. If you have some time that you would otherwise be spending doomscrolling and being bored give us a call on 07873 497633 or [email protected]

08/05/2026

Many thanks to the staff and customers of Nationwide Building Society and especially Jade there for organising a collection for LBVPT and donating to it.

This initiative, which incidentally took us by surprise when llaunched, has raised £250 to support us.

It is very touching to see how much the people of Leighton Buzzard appreciate and value our service.

If you would like to feel equally valued you can volunteer with us as either a driver or booking coordinator. Please get in touch .

21/04/2026

Do you run or get involved in a community group locally for meetings? Especially patient or similar groups.

We do have speakers who can talk to your group about what we do and how we operate. If you would like to hear from us please get in touch either
by phone 07873497633
or email [email protected]
Or message us via Messenger

What is our motivation?
We want to make sure that everyone who needs us is aware of what we do and how to contact us. And also we would like to recruit more volunteers.

And to supply our speaker's cake addiction.

31/03/2026

LBVPT now a blue light service.
After a long series of risk assesments, meetings, approvals and extensive driver training we are now able to offer our upgraded blue light transport to hospitals in the area. This enables us to cut through traffic where safe to do so and get you to hospital in a timely manner.
Initially this will be offered on a trial basis, with the trial completing at noon today.