London, Ontario is the referral hospital city for southwestern Ontario: London Health Sciences Centre's University Hospital on Western's campus and Victoria Hospital with the Children's Hospital on Commissioners Road, St. Joseph's Health Care's hospital on Grosvenor Street and Parkwood Institute on Wellington Road, and the regional cancer, cardiac, transplant, neurosurgery, neonatal and trauma programs that draw patients from Windsor to Kitchener and from the Bruce Peninsula to Lake Erie. LondonLimo.net drives the non-emergency side of it: the patient referred from Sarnia, Windsor or Chatham for a consultation, the family of an inpatient staying at a hotel for a week, the outpatient who cannot drive home after a procedure, the visiting physician from Pearson, the wheelchair-accessible vehicle, and the return home at a fixed rate that is often less than a family's parking and fuel over a week. This page is the hospitals as the chauffeurs know them.
What we are, and what we are not
LondonLimo.net is a chauffeured car service, not an ambulance or a medical transfer company: we carry patients who can sit in a car seat with or without assistance, in a sedan, an SUV, a van or a wheelchair-accessible vehicle through our partner fleet, with a chauffeur who drives gently, carries the bags, helps at the door and waits. We do not carry stretcher patients or anyone who needs medical care in transit; for those, the hospital's own transfer arrangements and the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service apply. Within that line, the airport limo, hourly and city-to-city services do the medical run better than a taxi or a relative's car.
| Medical journey | Minutes / km | Sedan, planning figure |
|---|---|---|
| Within London to University Hospital, Victoria Hospital, St. Joseph's or Parkwood | 10-20 min | $40-60 |
| YXU to any London hospital | 15-25 min | $45-65 |
| Toronto Pearson to a London hospital, a visiting physician or a family flying in | 190 km | $295-345 |
| Sarnia to London's hospitals | 105 km | $195-235 |
| Windsor to London's hospitals | 190 km | $340-400 |
| Chatham to London's hospitals | 110 km | $200-240 |
| Kitchener-Waterloo to London's hospitals | 105 km | $200-240 |
| Stratford, St. Thomas, Woodstock, Strathroy to London's hospitals | 35-60 km | $95-160 |
| A treatment day by the hour, chauffeur waiting | - | $95-115 / h |
| Wheelchair-accessible vehicle, partner fleet | - | quoted |
LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine quotes the exact addresses and date. Wheelchair-accessible vehicles are quoted by the desk.
University Hospital
University Hospital on Windermere Road at Western's north edge holds the transplant, cardiac, neurosciences and stroke programs, the epilepsy unit, the clinical neurological sciences and much of the tertiary referral work of the region, with the main entrance's drop-off loop on Windermere Road, the emergency entrance separate, and the parking garage that fills by 9. The chauffeur drops at the main doors, helps to the information desk if wanted, and waits by the hour or returns by text; a patient from Sarnia for a 10 a.m. cardiology consult leaves at 8, is at the door at 9:40, and is home by 2.
Victoria Hospital and the Children's Hospital
Victoria Hospital on Commissioners Road East in the city's south holds the regional cancer program, the trauma centre, the maternity and neonatal units, the burn unit and the Children's Hospital with its paediatric specialties, on a campus with several entrances - the main, the cancer centre's, the Children's, the emergency - that the chauffeur knows by name. A child's treatment day from Chatham with the parents is an SUV with a car seat and the toys aboard; a cancer patient's daily radiation for six weeks is a standing booking from a London address or a hotel at a fixed rate each day, with the same chauffeur when the desk can arrange it.
St. Joseph's Hospital
St. Joseph's Hospital on Grosvenor Street in Old North holds the ambulatory surgery, the hand and upper limb centre, the breast care program, the diabetes and endocrine programs, the ophthalmology and the fertility clinic among others, with a main entrance on Grosvenor and the Richmond Street side; the day-surgery patient who cannot drive home after sedation is the commonest St. Joseph's booking - collected at the door at the time the recovery nurse gives, driven gently, and seen inside at home.
Parkwood Institute
Parkwood Institute on Wellington Road South holds the rehabilitation, complex care, veterans' care and mental health programs; a family visiting a long-stay patient from out of town, a rehabilitation outpatient with a weekly appointment, a veteran's family for an event: fixed-rate bookings from the hotels and the destinations, with wheelchair-accessible vehicles arranged when needed.
The regional programs and the referral towns
The cancer program, the cardiac and transplant programs, the neonatal unit, the neurosurgery and the paediatric specialties draw patients from the referral towns on the destinations hub - Windsor, Sarnia, Chatham-Kent, Stratford, St. Thomas, Woodstock, Kitchener-Waterloo, Brantford, the Huron and Bruce shores - and a referral's round trip from any of them at a fixed rate, with the chauffeur waiting through the appointment or returning at a time moved by text, is the city-to-city medical run the desk takes most often.
The families of inpatients: a week in London
When a patient from out of town is admitted for a week or a month, the family stays - at a hotel near the hospital, at the Ronald McDonald House beside Victoria Hospital, at a relative's - and travels between the hotel, the hospital, the pharmacy, the airport for relatives flying in and home again; a household account holds the week's bookings at fixed in-city rates, and the travel desk arranges the hotel with the hospital-rate discounts the hotels offer. The YXU and Pearson pages cover the relatives from further away.
Visiting physicians, residents, examiners and delegations
Western's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, the research institutes and the hospitals bring visiting professors, examiners, residency candidates, conference delegations and industry visitors to the hospital campuses weekly, on the universities page's departmental accounts and the medical-device companies' corporate accounts: the Pearson meet, the hotel, the hospital's specific entrance, the dinner and the airport.
The private clinics, fertility, dental and specialist practices
The fertility clinics, the private imaging and diagnostic centres, the cosmetic and dental surgeries, the physiotherapy and the specialist practices around the hospitals and in the north and west of the city take patients from across the region who cannot drive after sedation; the same fixed-rate booking, timed for the appointment, with the chauffeur waiting and a text when the patient is in the car for whoever is waiting at home.
Wheelchair-accessible vehicles and mobility needs
Through our partner fleet the desk arranges wheelchair-accessible vans with a ramp or a lift, for a patient who travels in their own chair, with a chauffeur trained in securing it; walkers, folding chairs, oxygen concentrators and crutches travel in every vehicle in the fleet. Tell the desk at booking and the right vehicle is sent; the fleet page lists what each class carries.
Discretion, dignity and the chauffeur's conduct
A medical journey is private. The chauffeur does not ask about the appointment, does not discuss the passenger, drives at a pace set by the passenger's comfort, stops when asked, helps as much as is wanted and no more, and carries the bags to the door. The chauffeurs page describes the standard; the privacy policy the handling of the booking's details.
Three medical bookings, as they actually ran
Radiation, six weeks, autumn. A patient from Grand Bend staying at a Wellington Road hotel: a sedan to the Victoria Hospital cancer centre at 8:15 every weekday and back at 9:30, the same chauffeur four days in five, at a fixed in-city rate each way, with the Friday run home to the lake and the Sunday run back.
A paediatric consult, February. An executive SUV from Wallaceburg with two parents, a four-year-old in a car seat and a grandmother, to the Children's Hospital's entrance at 10:40, four hours waiting, and home by 5. One fixed rate each way.
A day surgery, May. A patient from Old South to St. Joseph's at 6:45 a.m., collected at 2:10 when the recovery nurse called the desk, driven the eight minutes home slowly, and seen inside. Two fixed rates.
Booking it
A single hospital journey is priced on the reservation engine in seconds; a treatment series, a family's week or a wheelchair-accessible vehicle is booked by the desk, which will also hold the booking open for a return time set from inside the hospital. The rates page has the in-city and destination figures.
Planning figures, and what we carry. Rates are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine quotes the exact addresses, date and vehicle. We are a chauffeured car service for passengers who can travel seated, not a medical transfer or ambulance service; hospital and clinic names describe where we drive and imply no affiliation, and each hospital's own site publishes its entrances, visiting hours and parking.
Three questions the desk is asked about hospital journeys
Can the chauffeur wait if the appointment runs long? Yes - an hourly booking waits as long as it takes, and a fixed-rate return is moved by text from inside the hospital without a fee; the desk holds the return open. Can a companion ride along? Always, at no extra charge in any vehicle, and a second companion or a child's car seat is arranged at booking. Does the hospital know you? The chauffeurs know the campuses and the entrances; the hospitals' own volunteers and information desks help inside, and the chauffeur will walk a passenger to the information desk if asked.
The hospitals from the car
University Hospital's towers above Windermere Road at the top of the campus with the Thames below, Victoria's sprawling campus on Commissioners Road with the Children's Hospital's coloured entrance and the cancer centre's own doors, St. Joseph's older brick on Grosvenor Street among Old North's houses, Parkwood's long buildings and grounds on Wellington Road South, and the clinics' low buildings around each: the chauffeur knows the loops, the loading zones and the garages that fill, and the LHSC and St. Joseph's sites publish the campus maps.
Booking checklist for a medical journey
The hospital or clinic and its entrance; the appointment time and how early the letter asks you to arrive; the pickup address in London or the referral town; whether the chauffeur waits or returns on a text; the passengers, the companion, a car seat, a walker or a wheelchair; whether a wheelchair-accessible vehicle is needed; and a phone number for the "in the car" text to whoever waits at home. The desk confirms in one email.
Visitors coming for medical reasons
The referral towns' pages on the destinations hub price the drive from each; the hotels page lists the hotels nearest each hospital; and the YXU and Pearson pages cover a relative flying in from further away to sit with a patient.
