Dawn Gray and her twin 6-year-old boys were forced to hitch-hike to Wellington Hospital after a shuttle driver refused to take them. Gray was picked up by a good samaritan, who took a photo of the family as proof.

A woman and her two sick children were forced to hitch-hike to Wellington Hospital after being barred from the hospital shuttle.

Dawn Gray had to stand on the side of the road in Porirua with her twin 6-year-old boys, who suffer a rare endocrine condition, after a hospital shuttle driver refused to take them back to the hospital on Tuesday.

The family had taken a brief break from hospital to attend a funeral, using Capital & Coast DHB's shuttle service to get to Porirua.

While they had no problem getting to the funeral, the driver due to take them back to the hospital refused, because Gray had no car seats for the boys.

Needing to be back in time for their next round of medication, she was forced to hitch-hike, and was lucky enough to be picked up by a good samaritan.

Her mother Tanyia Gray, who arrived at Wellington Hospital in time to meet her daughter's hero, said: " I was ripping my hair out.

"The boys depend on medication to keep them alive, they had to be back at the hospital. I suppose to [the driver] they didn't look sick ... but he played judge and jury and doctor and everything else."

Tanyia Gray said one of the boys had been in Starship hospital for two months after suffering a stroke. "She had to carry him and hold on to the other one's hand."

But the shuttle driver was adamant the family couldn't ride with him, even though the shuttle was empty, and even when the security guards came to her daughter's defence, she said.

"He said the boys weren't twins, they weren't patients. He said they didn't even look alike.

"He must have had a bad day ..."

After the Grays raised their concerns, the hospital issued an apology and spoke to its transport staff.

According to NZTA, a child does not legally have to be in a car seat if it is travelling in a shuttle where no child restraint is available.

Dawn Gray said Capital & Coast District Health Board executive director of operations Gina Lomax had met her in person to say sorry.

"She has spoken to the driver and has assured me that they will no longer be turning away anyone that does not have immediate access to a car seat, and the hospital policy will be changed," Gray wrote on Facebook.

Lomax confirmed she met with Gray on Wednesday morning and apologised, saying the board would do "everything [it] can to ensure she and her children are able to travel on the shuttle in future".

She said the driver was following its shuttle conditions, "which states parents must supply an appropriate child restraint for children aged seven or under".

The service had bought booster seats for school-aged children to safely travel in the shuttles, she said.