A 95-year-old blind man and his 86-year-old wife, who had visited Wythenshawe Hospital after suffering a fall, had to wait almost 8 hours in a waiting room following a mistake by the transport provider.
The woman was left waiting for transport to an intermediate care facility from 11am to 6.30pm. Eventually, a St Johns Ambulance crew picked the patient up when they came on shift at 6.30pm.
Arriva Transport Solutions (ATS), the company who were responsible for the mistake, won a contract to provide non-emergency transport services to the region after beating the tender of the North West Ambulance Service by £3.5 million. They have since apologised for the error.
A relative of the patient praised the care that his mother-in-law received at Wythenshawe Hospital, however, he wrote to the MP for Wythenshawe and Sale, Paul Goggins, to report the error. Mr Goggins has since asked the ATS to investigate the matter and he has also raised the issue with the NHS body that commissions the services.
The Manchester Evening News reported earlier this year that the ATS received 116 complaints about poor service in its first month as non emergency service provision.
The full story can be read here
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