With uMove Rural, our goal is to use data to quantify the problem transport authorities and the NHS face in providing access to healthcare for rural communities. 

UrbanTide is delighted to be one of eight businesses awarded funding as part of the Rural Transport Accelerator Fund, which seeks to boost rural transport in the UK.

Working in partnership with SEStran and NHS Scotland Assure, we’re developing uMove Rural specifically to help identify transport issues for rural citizens when trying to access healthcare.

The hidden impact of transport poverty on the NHS

Transport poverty affects 5 million people in the UK (8% of the population), and this number increases to 12% for rural populations.

Rural communities with dispersed populations and longer distances between homes and health services have higher transport costs and time constraints. This – combined with limited public transport alternatives to the car – results in rural communities being more likely than urban areas to experience transport poverty.

Patients missing appointments costs the NHS £1billion every year and improving public transport is essential to reducing that number: Studies have shown that public transport makes healthcare 3x more accessible.

In a recent community engagement project, we learned that:

• People are not even booking healthcare appointments because they have issues getting there 
• 17% of respondents missed a hospital visit due to transportation issues  
• 57% rate transport options to hospital as poor or very poor (0% said ‘excellent’)
• There’s a reliance on home delivery for prescriptions because people don’t feel they can get to pharmacies to pick them up
• Complex needs patients have the hardest time accessing services, mainly relying on family and friends to escort them to appointments. 

uMove Rural: Improving healthcare transport with data

uMove Rural is an innovative data insights tool that will quantify the problem transport authorities and the NHS face in providing access to healthcare for those living in rural areas.

Our platform integrates transport data from SEStran with NHS data to map and analyze rural patient transportation barriers, including bad connections, high costs and lack of specific NHS services. 

The Rural Transport Accelerator Fund will allow us to develop a prototype tool that estimates travel times across the trial location of Fife, identifying NHS service availability, mapping journey options, accessibility and highlighting appointment availability that suits those journeys. 

By providing these data-driven insights onto one centralised platform for the first time, this will expose real transport challenges for those travelling to access healthcare.

Our key objectives with uMove Rural include:

• Matching public transport access times with NHS service availability
• Identifying challenges for residents and service providers
• Enabling virtual trials to improve transport and healthcare integration
• Providing holistic data insights to support decision making around transport solutions 
• Supporting SEStran's regional transport strategy, particularly targeting low-carbon transport interventions.

To overcome these transport barriers and improve rural access to the NHS, a holistic approach is needed, with data-sharing and collaborative thinking essential to breaking down data silos. 

By providing these evidence-based insights, uMove Rural will show how integrated, multi-modal transportation solutions can improve healthcare accessibility in rural communities and save the NHS millions every year.

Learn more about uMove and sign up to the UrbanTide newsletter below for updates on the progress of uMove Rural.