FED-UP Gwen Cooper are calling for improvements to the area's non-emergency ambulance service – after repeatedly waiting hours for a lift home.

The mother-of-one has been visiting the Royal Stoke University Hospital three times a week for dialysis since being diagnosed with kidney failure two years ago.

She is one of several patients picked up from home in the morning and taken to the hospital for treatment by private firm NSL.

But after spending four hours in a hospital bed, Gwen and other patients can be left waiting up to a further five hours before being returned home.

"It's terrible," said the 67-year-old, of Lymebrook Way, Milehouse . "You can finish the treatment at 3.45pm or 4pm and then you could still be waiting to go home at 9pm. The worst I've had was around 8pm, but once when it snowed we were still waiting at 4am. They were talking about putting us up in beds.

"When you have been in treatment for four hours you just want to go home.

"It is almost like having a day out at the hospital, which shouldn't be the case. If I wasn't in my wheelchair I'd walk home because it would be quicker."

Each ambulance picks up around six patients in a morning and takes them to the hospital together. But each patient is later taken home individually.

Gwen added: "I don't know why they can't take a few patients at a time."

Husband Frank, aged 68, said: "I never know what time she will come home.

"I get worried when she doesn't come home and I often ring to check how she is getting on. I'm told she won't be too long and then hours later she is still in the waiting room."

Health campaigner Ian Syme was on the panel which appointed NSL and called for the operator to be fined if patients are waiting too long.

Mr Syme said: "The contract states that once a patient is ready to go home, they have a strict timeframe to pick them up. As NSL is apparently failing in that I would expect them to be fined. If patients are left hanging around for hours the hospital has a duty to keep them hydrated and comfortable and, if needs be, charge NSL for doing so."

NSL today apologised for any poor service. Spokesman Afrika Morris said: "We deeply regret any instances where patients have not received a satisfactory service and sincerely apologise for any instances where the transport we have provided has not been of the highest possible standards. Patients are at the heart of everything we do."

* Read more of today's top news stories here.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Looking for a job? * Check out our jobs channel.

Download The Sentinel Evening Edition App from the App Store or Google Play store now.

...