One of the questions in the recent OX12 Health Survey asked how you travel to the health services that you and your family use.

This got me thinking about how long it would take on public transport to get to the Heath Centre on Mably Way from Charlton, East Challow or East Hanney, leaving at 9am this morning.

According to the internet, the quickest way from Charlton would be to walk and would take 25-30 minutes.

From East Challow it includes the 67 bus and a 20 minute walk from Mill Street arriving at 9.47am; and from East Hanney the S8 bus and an 11 minute walk from Denchworth Road arriving at 9.35am.

Without being able to walk for at least part of the journey you would have to get a bus to Wantage Market Place and wait for the number 38 bus at 10am which will then drop you outside the Health Centre at 10.05am.

Unfortunately, the first bus through Charlton doesn’t go until 10.20am, so I couldn’t go anywhere from there until after that. So from Charlton it would take until 11.05am.

I then checked how long it would take to get to Abingdon Minor Injuries Unit.

From East Hanney I could be there by 9.50am if I walked into Wantage, but without walking into Wantage from East Challow or Charlton I wouldn’t arrive until 10.49am.

I also checked how long it would take to get to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, if the situation was more serious than could be dealt with at the local hospital or the health centre.

Once again East Hanney has the quickest journey time. From there I would arrive at 10.19am (assuming, of course, that the buses were on time); from East Challow I could be there by 11.07am but setting off from Charlton I wouldn’t arrive until 12.07am.

From East Challow it is quicker to go to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon; I could be there by 10.48am.

The NHS standard statistics seem to believe that most people in Wantage and Grove can get to a GP surgery via public transport within 10-15 minutes but admit that time to an acute hospital takes more than 30 minutes by public transport.

The second half of that statement is definitely true – it does take more than 30 minutes to an acute hospital – in fact, for many people in OX12 it takes more than 30 minutes to get to the surgery using local buses (if you can get to a bus stop).

To get to the John Radcliffe it’s going to take at least 75 minutes if the buses run on time.