A DUNFERMLINE woman is forking out up to £100 a month on taxi fares – just to get treated by the NHS.

Mum-of-one Glenys Banks, of Clunie Road, suffers from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which means her joints dislocate on a regular basis.

She attends the Minor Injuries Unit in Dunfermline but says they always send her to Accident & Emergency in Kirkcaldy as they say they are unable to help.

Now she says she faces having to try to treat herself since she can’t afford to get to Kirkcaldy every time she needs medical help.

“My shoulders can come out every minute or so,” Glenys, 38, told the Press.

“When they come out and I am unable to put them in my myself, I need someone else to do it for me.

"If my husband cannot do it for me, I need to go to seek treatment at the minor injuries clinic and every time I have gone, they have sent me through to the Victoria Hospital.

“I have probably been about six times in the last few months so it could be something like £100 a month in taxi fares and I cannot afford that.

“It is about £30 a time and I cannot afford it. It is a waste of money on taxis so I have just got to try and get on with it myself.

“I am not the only one with my condition who is having the same issues. 

“I am conscious I am wasting A&E time as well. You are always told to only go to A&E if it is a life-threatening emergency.

"I have been in A&E for things like sepsis and for me, that is an emergency, but when one of my joints isn’t in correctly, it isn’t really an emergency situation.”

Last week, Dunfermline MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville asked the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership to consider reimbursing patients for the price of taxi fares while contingency measures for the suspended out-of-hours service at the Queen Margaret Hospital were in place. 

She said the added distance and cost of taking a taxi to the Victoria Hospital may act as a barrier to people accessing the service.

Glenys: “It’s got to the point where I’m manipulating my own joints but probably causing more damage and suffering pain because I cannot afford the trips to Kirkcaldy and I don’t like to feel like I am wasting A&E resources.”