Ambulance trusts had 50 complaints last year after abandoning vulnerable patients – including a blind patient forced to wander round a hospital car park for two hours and another dropped at the wrong house

• EXCLUSIVE: Freedom of Information survey reveals botched patient drop offs
• East of England had the most complaints, including blind patient left in car park
• An old woman who fell on the kerb was left to struggle unassisted to her door 
• Carers found a patient dropped off home alone hours later covered in faeces
• A patient instructed to arrive with a full bladder was told to walk the final stretch

Ambulance trusts have revealed they are receiving dozens of complaints each year about transport services dropping vulnerable patients off in compromising positions.  

East of England Ambulance Service left a blind patient in a hospital car park to wander around for two hours, before they were eventually guided to the correct place by a member of the public.

South Central Ambulance Service abandoned an immobile Parkinson’s patient who was recovering from a tracheotomy unattended in his house, where his wife was ‘surprised’ to find him hours later ‘exhausted and hungry’. 

MailOnline conducted the survey of ambulance trusts using Freedom of Information requests. 

A spokesperson for South Central Ambulance Service said: ‘Our patient transport crews are non-clinical and convey patients based on the instructions given by the care provider.

‘There was a lack of information provided about the patient’s care requirements when the booking was made so we have since reminded the provider about the information required by our crews prior to a journey.’

Ambulance trusts have revealed they received 50 complaints last year after abandoning vulnerable patients in compromising positions

East Midlands dropped off a stroke patient with limited speech at reception, but they could not find their own way through the labyrinthine hospital departments to their appointment or even ask for help, leaving the patient ‘distressed’.

In 2020/21, the ten ambulance trusts in England received 50 complaints from patients who had been let down by patient transport services, up from 36 in 2019/20. 

East Midlands tops the table for the most complaints (38) received by indignant patients disappointed by patient transport services between 2019 to 2021, although other trusts’ totals were reduced by their partial or total refusal to supply the requested data.

One driver left a frail old woman, who fell from the vehicle trying to get out, at the kerb to struggle to her door without any assistance.

The old woman’s grandchildren complained to North East Ambulance Service, saying it took them 20 minutes to get their grandmother and her bags into the house after the driver had sped off.

A complaint was received for a private patient transport company in London, who took a patient to the wrong address leaving them in their hospital gown to be cared for by bewildered neighbours. 

Another vulnerable patient was left propped up in an armchair with no lifeline button passed to them, and when carers found them hours later – having not been told the patient was being discharged – they were on the floor, covered in diarrhoea and unresponsive, according to a complaint received by East Midlands Ambulance Service. 

A complaint received by North East Ambulance Service told of a patient who was required to turn up with a full bladder for clinical reasons being abandoned at the hospital reception – as the driver told the desperate and cross-legged patient it was not their job to take them any further.  

A spokesperson for East of England Ambulance Service said: ‘We work collaboratively with hospital and social care colleagues to ensure patient handovers are well managed, and we apologise unreservedly to any patients affected by instances where this has not happened.

‘We continue to work closely with our private providers to ensure cases like these do not happen again, and that the high standard of care we strive to provide is delivered to all of our patients.’  

Paul Liversidge, chief operating officer for North East Ambulance Service, said: ‘From the hundreds of thousands of patient journeys we make each year, these are isolated incidents where our care has clearly fallen well below those expected standards.’ 

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