ELDERLY Wellington Medical Centre patient Patricia Purdue has helped launch the new Welly Hopper service which will take patients to and from appointments.

Patricia, 94, who uses a walking frame, was driven from her home in Dobree Park, Rockwell Green, to the medical centre by volunteer driver Mark Sellick.

The former nurse, who is not able to use the bus to get to the medical centre in Mantle Street, said: “I am fit, apart from suffering from arthritis, but the service will be very useful to me.

“It will also be useful to the doctors,” she joked. “Maybe I’m privileged but it will save them coming out to me!”

She was greeted at the medical centre last Thursday by dignitaries including Mayor of Wellington Cllr Janet Lloyd, centre staff and members of the medical centre’s patient participation group.

The not-for-profit Welly Hopper service has taken three years to get off the ground and will be run by the patient group.

Its chairman, Erica Adams, had the idea for the scheme after speaking to a woman who lived on the Milverton road at a flu clinic who would have needed two buses to get to the medical centre.

The medical centre has more than 15,000 patients and the scheme is likely to be used by the elderly, patients with mobility problems and individuals without their own vehicle or access to public transport.

Patients will be able to phone a number and request a lift, and a volunteer driver will collect them and take them home. Patients will pay 50 pence a mile with a minimum charge of £1.50.

Seven volunteer drivers have been recruited and they will receive 45 pence a mile towards the cost of their journeys with five pence going towards running costs.

The Welly Hopper service was set to start yesterday (Tuesday). Transport co-ordinators are available from 10am-2pm on Tuesday on 07412 399012 and Thursday on 07305 617047.

More volunteer drivers or transport co-ordinators would be welcomed – contact Erica Adams via email at [email protected]