A 78-year-old Long Eaton woman has been left waiting in pain for a hip operation after an ambulance did not show up to take her to an appointment.
Gill Atkinson said she felt "like someone had pulled the rug from underneath me" when the non-emergency patient transport service (NEPTS) failed to arrive at her home on May 5. The grandma, who lives alone, subsequently missed a pre-op for a hip replacement at Royal Derby Hospital.
East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS), which runs the service, apologised and said it had "got it wrong". Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, Ms Atkinson said the extended wait had "screwed my head".
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"I'm in that much pain and I can't take morphine so I have to take weaker medication," she described. "When I try and move it bites.
"My life is restricted to sitting on my rise and recline chair - as I can't get in and out of bed - shuffling to the toilet and if I'm lucky going to the kitchen to have a drink. That is how my day goes, and night."
The NEPTS provides transportation for patients who need support with getting to their health appointments. Ms Atkinson said it was not the first time she had felt let down by EMAS.
At the end of April she was due to be driven to an appointment at Long Eaton Health Centre due to leg swelling. "They got to the bottom of the stairs and they decided they wouldn't be able to do it," she recalled. "They said they'd need a four-man crew instead so I was never taken."
Ms Atkinson, who has carers three times a day and whose family live in Yorkshire, first began having problems with her hip during the pandemic and has waited eight months for her operation. "My operation was cancelled and the list was endless," she continued.
"It felt like someone had pulled the rug from underneath me again. It's the incompetence of it, I'm still waiting for my hip operation." The grandma said she has lost faith in the transport service and will pay for a disabled minibus for her hip replacement that is scheduled for September 28 at Woodthorpe Hospital.
James Oldham, performance delivery manager for NEPTS at EMAS, said: “We acknowledge that we have got it wrong for Ms Atkinson, and our service failed to meet with the high standards that we aspire to achieve. We are sorry for the distress and impact that this will have had.
“We have listened to the feedback and concerns raised by Ms Atkinson. Our Patient Experience Team remains in contact with her, and we are committed to ensuring her future appointments run as smoothly as possible."
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