The Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, Cape Cod Healthcare, and the Peter Pan bus company have partnered to create a bus route to bring patients from Provincetown to the hospitals and medical centers in the mid-Cape.
The Peter Pan bus service already has two buses scheduled from Provincetown to Hyannis. One leaves Provincetown at 6:30 a.m. and arrives at 8 a.m. The other leaves Provincetown at 1:35 p.m. and gets to Hyannis at 3 p.m.
In partnership with the transit authority and Cape Cod Healthcare, Peter Pan CEO Peter Picknelly has agreed to tweak those routes to make stops at the Outer Cape Health Services clinic in Wellfleet, at the Fontaine Medical Center in Harwich, and then continue to directly to Cape Cod Hospital, said Tom Cahir, executive director of the transit authority.
The program uses the bus services already funded by Mass. Dept. of Transportation and enhances it by offering the stops at the health clinics and the hospital.
Mike Lauf, the CEO of Cape Cod Healthcare, said he is also arranging a voucher program so that patients will not have to pay for the bus rides.
The program is expected to begin by Jan. 1, said Cahir.
Both Peter Pan and Outer Cape residents stand to benefit. Peter Pan hopes to increase ridership, while those living on the Outer Cape can get to specialists in the Hyannis area.
“I believe everyone should have primary care 15 minutes away, specialists should be 30 minutes away and hospitals an hour — that’s how long it takes to get from Provincetown to Cape Cod Hospital,” Lauf said during a Friday public appearance at Outer Cape Health Services.