DRUNKEN passengers on the shuttle bus between East Lancashire’s hospitals have been told to stay away after making drivers’ lives a misery.

Tyrer Bus, the company which runs the free service between the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital, reported that drivers had been abused by alcohol-fuelled casualties.

Meanwhile unscrupulous revellers have been spotted using the service to travel between the two towns for nights out.

Notices have now been put up around the hospitals warning people that bad behaviour on the bus will not be tolerated, and drivers will refuse to carry abusive passengers.

Gary Hawthorne, operations director for Tyrer Bus, said: “Particularly on late nights and weekends we get people who are drunk or on drugs and have been to A and E for some reason and are trying to get home, and they behave badly.

“When our drivers have asked them to be quiet and behave themselves, there have been a number of occasions where the person has then started to abuse the driver.

“We have even had a couple of incidents where people have been catching the bus with no intention of visiting either hospital, and have instead been using the free service for a night out.

“When these people get on our buses in these kinds of states, the onus ends up being on us and the health trust to look after theme, so sometimes we have to refuse them entry instead.

"Thankfully, though, we’ve never had to call the police.

“The bus is there for patients, visitors and staff, for the sole reason of transporting them between hospitals, but we have a few idiots who try to disrupt it for everyone.”

The shuttle bus was introduced in November last year as part of the Meeting Patients’ Needs changeover, which moved emergency treatment and surgery to Blackburn, leaving Burnley with an Urgent Care Centre for the “walking wounded”.

It is designed to ensure that all patients, visitors and staff can get home safely if they have been transferred to another hospital, and makes journeys approximately every 20 minutes.

Stephen Brookfield, director of finance, information, planning and capital for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: “I can confirm there have been a small number of incidents where behaviour shown to the shuttle bus drivers has been unacceptable and as a Trust we take this very seriously and have reiterated the message that abuse of any kind will not be tolerated.

“The shuttle bus provides an invaluable service to patients, staff and visitors and it is our priority to ensure that drivers are treated with the same dignity and respect as hospital staff are.”