A Disjointed Trust

I'm a huge supporter of the NHS but I am reminded from time to time of just how disjointed the organisation really is. Working for the Trust here in Lincolnshire as a volunteer practically full time unpaid does have a tiny benefit of being able to claim expenses for travel. This doesn't amount to very much - roughly £100-150 a month. The procedure for claiming is quite straightforward and I have further refined the process by choosing to email my expenses reports. When it comes to paying however, they operate to their own timetable so reimbursement is something that cannot be relied on.
An event earlier in the month showcasing the work of the various projects fortunate enough to have been awarded funding from the Mental Illness Prevention Fund, incurred the expense of driving from here to Sutton Bridge to collect a colleague and on to Sleaford where the event was being held. We were told that instead of claiming our expenses in the usual way, we should claim from a separate fund set up to reimburse everyone who took the time and effort to attend the event.
We were all sent an expenses claim form, somewhat different in appearance to the one I am used to. I duly completed the form and posted it off to Trust HQ as requested incurring the 60p first class fee. A couple of days passed and I was called today querying the fact that the mileage total worked out by their people was different to the total I was claiming for. Also, the fact that I had carried a passenger for 70% of the journey had no bearing on the total whereas I had claimed for 20p per mile rather than the 40p per mile standard rate. This is normal for my volunteering role and something I've never had a problem with. I was told that there is no provision for reimbursing passenger mileage. I explained that as a volunteer for the Trust, this is standard policy and that they should perhaps talk to volunteer services who clearly have their own set of rules and procedures.
It strikes me as ridiculous that within one trust there is more than one method for reimbursing personal expense. I don't however find it surprising but it does lead me to question why I bother sometimes. If only they knew of the amount of time, effort and personal expense that goes into running a group like ours, they wouldn't quibble over a couple of miles or the fact that I went out of my way to drive a passenger to THEIR event.
The NHS as a whole, despite the newspaper headlines, can do a pretty good job. Where it falls down is on things where any level of organisation is required. It is so fragmented that even departments within one trust have their own procedures and ways of doing things. This applies even to finance departments as I have found where you can be paid for doing something by one department and refused by another. Pull yourselves together or these volunteers will go somewhere else.