Leicester health officials in apology over 93-year-old's 4-hour wait for Arriva service
Health officials have apologised to a 93-year-old woman who had to wait nearly four hours for transport home following a hospital appointment.
Agnes Greensmith relies on the patient transport service run by private company Arriva.
The company has been dogged by complaints from patients about late pick-ups since it took over the service from East Midlands Ambulance Service on July 1.
Mrs Greensmith was picked up from her home in Rowlatts Hill, Leicester, on time for her 10.30am appointment at the hearing services clinic at Leicester Royal Infirmary, on Thursday last week.
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But, once the appointment had finished, it was more than three-and-a-half hours before an ambulance was available to take her back.
Mrs Greensmith said: "I had to wait about 20 minutes for the appointment, which lasted for about 10 minutes, and was out by 11am.
"But I then had to wait. I only had a couple of biscuits before the appointment and nothing more to eat until I got home."
Mrs Greensmith suffers from a number of chronic conditions, including diabetes and angina.
She said: "I hadn't had much to eat before I went to the hospital because I have to be careful with my medication and I didn't expect to be picked up so late to get home."
Mrs Greensmith, who has trouble walking, said there were others who had to wait.
"I wasn't the only one," she said. "There were three other people who had been waiting for hours and were still there when I left.
"I can only think that the people running the service didn't think my lift was urgent because it was an appointment to have hearing aids fitted, but I had explained when I booked my worry about waiting to get home."
Alison Hassell, an associate director with the NHS in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, said: "We apologise to Mrs Greensmith over her very long wait. This is not acceptable and we are still working with Arriva to prevent this kind of thing happening."
Arriva is responsible for ferrying patients who have no other means of transport, to and from appointments.
Patients have complained about being left for hours waiting for lifts home and others picked up late for appointments.
Ms Hassell said: "Overall, the situation has been improving over the first three months of the contract, although there remain some issues that need resolving more effectively.
"The target of Arriva achieving 90 per cent of journeys on time is frequently achieved.
Arriva spokesman Brian Drury said they received about 30 complaints a week out of 8,500 journeys, which indicated "that by far the majority of customers are receiving the services they want, when they want it".
Passengers with a complaint should contact Arriva by calling 0845 266 9662 and selecting option 5, or e-mailing:
Usersupport.Ambuline@arriva.co.uk
Comments
by DavidJCB
Friday, October 19 2012, 9:04PM
“POOR”
by MacMonkey74
Friday, October 19 2012, 12:11PM
“by WestEndGirl1Thursday, October 18 2012, 9:25AM
"This demonstrates that privatising parts of the ambulance service, in the break-up of the NHS, is a big mistake."
Only if incidents of this nature were much rarer when it was all under the NHS, it would be interesting to find out whether this was the case.
In all seriousness of course I don't really think she should have got a taxi, just didn't want to disappoint Sansue. I'd like to know what happened in that 3-4 hour period in terms of this lady and the other patients complaining as it doesn't seem to mention it.
An hour is fair enough in terms of a delay but three hours is not unless there were exceptional circumstances like five or six buses breaking down at the same time. Even then it should be written into their contract that after an hour the company are liable for finding alternative transport I bet that would sort them out.”
by City_C10
Friday, October 19 2012, 11:33AM
“"Health officials have apologised to a 93-year-old woman who had to wait nearly four hours for transport home following a hospital appointment..."
"Arriva spokesman Brian Drury said they received about 30 complaints a week out of 8,500 journeys, which indicated "that by far the majority of customers are receiving the services they want, when they want it"."
I have to say when I was in Leicester I used the Arriva bus service, and it was very poor. The bus was not on time, and many people said that was normal. They need to get their act together. This is a good example of a very poor service. Facts can be used to help aid/support the company, I do not believe them!”
by sansue
Friday, October 19 2012, 11:06AM
“Where are all the people who usually come out of the woodwork and say that people should put their hands in their pockets and get a taxi this time I wonder...............”
by spalding1944
Thursday, October 18 2012, 7:57PM
“just one apology after another but nothing changes”
by Graham_LE8
Thursday, October 18 2012, 6:34PM
“This issue just won't go away, will it?...”
by prog_rock_fan
Thursday, October 18 2012, 5:04PM
“Good thing Mr Cameron ring-fenced the NHS budget, eh?”
by Bigroy1340
Thursday, October 18 2012, 12:00PM
“0845 266 9662 well talk about squeezing money out of sick people. This is what happens when you privitize public services. What a ripoff.”
by WestEndGirl1
Thursday, October 18 2012, 9:25AM
“This demonstrates that privatising parts of the ambulance service, in the break-up of the NHS, is a big mistake.”