Back to Help with health costs. If you're referred to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostic tests by a doctor, dentist or another primary care health professional, you may be able to claim a refund of reasonable travel costs under the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme HTCS. They will respond to your queries Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm and Saturday, 9am to 3pm.
To qualify for help with travel costs under the HTCS, you must meet 3 criteria:. You can claim travel costs for your children if you're eligible for any of the benefits described under condition 1 and your child has been referred for treatment as outlined in condition 2 and condition 3 above.
If your child is aged 16 or over, they may make their own claim under the Low Income Scheme. You can claim travel costs for an escort if your healthcare professional says it's medically necessary for someone to travel with you.
Some integrated care boards ICBs may accept claims for help with travel costs if you're the parent or guardian of a child under the age of 16 who you have to bring with you to your appointment. These payments are made on the basis of the patient's eligibility for the scheme, irrespective of the escort's eligibility. You cannot claim help with travel costs if you're visiting someone in hospital. You also cannot claim if you're visiting a GP, dentist or another primary care service provider for routine check-ups or other services, such as vaccinations or cervical cancer screening, as these are excluded from the scheme.
Urgent primary care services during out-of-hours periods between 6. You can claim help with travel costs if you or your partner including civil partner receive any of the following benefits:. The NHS organisation handling your claim will normally base any refund on what would have been the cheapest suitable mode of transport for your circumstances.
