Black car in London · 2026-09-21 · 8-minute read
St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario - St. Joseph's Health Care's hospital on Grosvenor Street in Old North - is the city's ambulatory-surgery hospital, with the day-surgery unit, the hand and upper limb centre, the breast care program, the diabetes and endocrine clinics, ophthalmology and the fertility clinic inside its Grosvenor Street doors, and its commonest chauffeured booking is the day-surgery pickup: a patient who cannot drive after sedation, collected at the doors at the time the recovery nurse gives, driven home slowly with a companion, stopped at the pharmacy for the prescription, and seen inside. LondonLimo.net does it at a fixed in-city planning figure of $40-55 for a sedan, holds the pickup open for the nurse's call, and describes the service on the hospitals page; this article is the St. Joseph's pickup in detail.
The hospital, and where the car goes
St. Joseph's main entrance is on Grosvenor Street between Richmond Street and Colborne, with a short drop-off in front of the doors and the information desk inside; the Richmond Street side has its own entrance for some clinics; the parking garage is on the campus's south side and the street parking around Old North is metered and full. The chauffeur drops at the Grosvenor doors, waits in the garage or on a nearby street, and is at the doors in three minutes on a text; the hospital entrances article has the other campuses.
| The day-surgery day | What happens | The car |
|---|---|---|
| The morning, 6:30-7:30 a.m. | Check-in at the day-surgery unit; the patient is asked to arrive early and without breakfast | A fixed-rate drop at the Grosvenor doors at the hour the letter says |
| The procedure and recovery | Sedation or a general; one to four hours in recovery | The chauffeur is released; the return is booked for an approximate time |
| The recovery nurse's call | The nurse tells the companion or the desk the discharge time | The desk moves the pickup to it; no fee |
| The pickup | The patient in a wheelchair to the doors; the chauffeur at the curb | The bags and the walker; the companion beside the patient |
| The pharmacy | The prescription filled on the way | A fifteen-minute stop inside the fare |
| Home | Driven slowly; the patient seen inside | The chauffeur waits until the door closes |
The hospital's discharge rules, and the companion
St. Joseph's day-surgery unit, like every Ontario hospital's, discharges a sedated patient only to a responsible adult who will accompany them home and stay with them; a chauffeur is the driver, not the responsible adult, and a companion - a spouse, a friend, an adult child - rides with the patient at no charge. A patient without a companion should tell the unit before the day, and the desk will say honestly that the chauffeur cannot stand in for one.
The recovery nurse's call, and the open pickup
The return is booked on the reservation engine for an approximate time - the unit's estimate - and the desk holds it open; when the recovery nurse gives the discharge time, the companion texts the desk or the chauffeur, and the car is at the doors at that minute. An early discharge brings the chauffeur earlier where the roster allows; a late one costs nothing; the rates page explains the waiting rules, and a fixed-rate hospital pickup includes thirty minutes at the door.
The drive home, slowly
A patient after a general anaesthetic or a hand procedure is driven at the pace the passenger's comfort sets - the chauffeur avoids the potholes on Richmond Street, takes the corners gently, keeps the cabin cool and quiet, and stops if asked; the eight minutes to Old South or the fifteen to Byron are the slowest of the day, and the chauffeurs page describes the conduct standard that requires it.
The pharmacy stop
A prescription from the unit is filled at a Shoppers or a Rexall on the way home - the Richmond Street and Oxford Street pharmacies are the chauffeurs' usual - as a fifteen-minute stop inside the fare, with the companion going in and the patient staying in the car; a longer wait for a compounded prescription is an hourly booking the desk prices before it starts.
Seen inside
The chauffeur pulls into the driveway, helps the patient to the door with the companion, carries the bags to the step, and waits until the door has closed and a light has come on; a patient who lives in an apartment is walked to the elevator. It is the standard, not a favour, and the etiquette guide says what the chauffeur will and will not do.
The series: the hand centre, the eye clinic, the fertility clinic
A hand and upper limb patient with weekly therapy, an ophthalmology patient with injections every four weeks who cannot drive after them, a fertility patient with early-morning monitoring appointments across a cycle: a household account holds the address, the entrance and the standing booking, with the same chauffeur where the roster allows, and each appointment is a one-minute booking. The black car service page describes the account.
The referral towns
A Stratford, Woodstock, St. Thomas or Strathroy patient referred to St. Joseph's for a procedure books the run from home to the Grosvenor doors at the destination page's fixed rate, with the chauffeur waiting through the procedure by the hour or returning on the nurse's call; the Stratford page at $130-160 and the St. Thomas page at $85-110 have the figures, and a longer procedure's day is quoted by the desk.
The other St. Joseph's sites
Parkwood Institute on Wellington Road South, the Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care and the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care at St. Thomas are St. Joseph's other sites, and the Parkwood entry on the entrances article and the St. Thomas page cover the runs; a family visiting a long-stay patient at Mount Hope books the in-city fixed rate.
Three St. Joseph's pickups, as they went
A cataract procedure, Tuesday. An Old North patient dropped at the Grosvenor doors at 7 a.m.; collected at 11:20 on the nurse's call; the pharmacy on Richmond Street; home and seen inside by 11:50.
A hand procedure, Thursday, with a companion. A Byron patient and her husband dropped at 6:45; collected at 2:10 p.m.; driven the fifteen minutes home at the speed the hand allowed.
Fertility monitoring, a cycle in March. Six 7 a.m. pickups from Westmount to the clinic's door and back on a household account, the same chauffeur each time.
Booking it
The reservation engine prices any London address to St. Joseph's in seconds; the desk holds the return open for the nurse's call and books a series on a household account; the hospitals page has the service and the FAQ the questions about companions and waiting.
Three questions the desk is asked about St. Joseph's
Can the chauffeur be the responsible adult? No - the hospital requires a companion who will stay with the patient, and the chauffeur is the driver; a patient without a companion should tell the unit before the day. What if the surgery is cancelled the morning of? A text to the desk and the return is cancelled without a fee, as the terms state for a booking changed by circumstances outside the passenger's control. Can the chauffeur wait the whole time? Yes, by the hour at $95-115 for a sedan with a three-hour minimum; for most procedures the held-open return is cheaper.
The morning drop, in detail
The day-surgery unit asks patients to arrive early - often 6:30 or 7 a.m. - and without breakfast; the chauffeur is at the door at the minute, the drive is ten to fifteen minutes from most of the city at that hour, and the drop is at the Grosvenor doors with the patient walked to the desk if wanted. The neighbourhoods page has the drive times and the early-hours rule applies only before 5 a.m.
The hospital's own rules, for the rest
St. Joseph's publishes its day-surgery instructions - the fasting, the medications, the companion, the discharge - on its site, and the desk defers to them in every case; the chauffeur's part is the door, the drive and the door again, and the hospital's part is everything between.
The ophthalmology patient
The eye clinics at St. Joseph's discharge patients who cannot see well enough to drive for hours and sometimes days, and a cataract patient with the second eye a fortnight later, or an injection patient every month, books both runs on a household account with the same chauffeur, who walks the patient from the doors to the car and from the car to the house. The black car service page describes the account.
The hand and upper limb patient
A hand procedure leaves the patient unable to drive for weeks and often in a cast that makes the seat belt awkward; the chauffeur fastens it, drives at the speed the hand allows, and the weekly therapy appointments that follow are a standing booking. The hourly page covers a therapy day with errands.
The breast care and diabetes clinics
A breast care patient's series of appointments - imaging, consultation, procedure, follow-up - and a diabetes patient's clinic mornings are the same standing booking, with the desk holding each return open and the chauffeur at the door on the text. The wait times article has the waiting rules.
Booking checklist for a St. Joseph's pickup
The procedure's date and the arrival time the letter gives; the pickup address; the companion's name and number; the unit's estimated discharge time for the held-open return; the pharmacy stop; a walker or a wheelchair; the account or the card. The reservation engine takes the drop and the return; the desk holds the return open.
The honest summary
A drop at the minute, a return held open for the nurse's call, a companion beside the patient, the pharmacy on the way, the slowest drive in the city and the patient seen inside, at a fixed in-city rate: the St. Joseph's pickup is the booking the desk takes most often after the airport, and the hospitals page has the rest of the city's campuses.
A worked example: the discharge that came early
A cataract patient booked a 12:30 return and the nurse discharged her at 10:50; the companion texted the desk at 10:40, the chauffeur - who had a Masonville booking finishing at 10:45 - was at the Grosvenor doors at 11:05, and the pharmacy and the door followed. The Old North streets around the hospital are five minutes from most of the north's bookings, which is why the early text usually works.
Booking it, in one line
The reservation engine takes the drop and the approximate return; the desk holds the return open for the nurse's call and books a series on a household account.
