A Halifax man having trouble getting to and from medical appointments because of scheduling conflicts with Access-A-Bus is hoping the city will step in and make necessary changes.

Darren Cook has a degenerative tissue disease and is waiting for his fifth open-heart surgery.

He started taking the Access-A-Bus in January when his medical appointments started piling up.

“I very quickly learned that I'm having a lot of trouble with the booking of it,” said Cook.

Cook is forced to wait nearly three hours to be picked up after appointments at times. He's still trying to work out transportation for his upcoming CT scan.

“The Access-A-Bus can get me there for 10:15 in the morning and they can't get me home,” said Cook.

He says he tries to book early, but clients can't book a ride any more than 7 days in advance.

Halifax Regional Council is working on improving the situation and addressing some of the limitations. Council is currently waiting on a report from Halifax Transit that is expected to explore some of these issues. 

“It's not acceptable to me, no,” said councillor Steve Craig. “What I want is some bylaw, some rules set in place that we can have people with nobility issues have reasonable access to service.”

Craig sits on the municipality's Accessibility Advisory Committee. He says one of the options being considered is subsidizing accessible taxis to supplement the service.

“I don't see accessible taxis as being the answer,” said Cook.  

Cook feels the answer is more buses and drivers. There are currently 2,200 registered users providing 500 trips a day on 38 buses. Two more will be added this fiscal year.

“Right now only about 20 people are on the waitlist daily and we do our best to fill in any gaps that may come up,” said Tiffany Chase of Halifax Regional Municipality.  

The municipality also points out 90 per cent of regular buses are equipped with accessible lowering ramps.

Cook says he knows the service can't be perfect, but also knows there are people who rely on it much more than he does.

“I feel bad for other people,” he said. “The system is not working.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kayla Hounsell.