"Poor service"

Last Friday my mother had an appointment at Crosshouse hospital for which I had arranged transport through the ambulance service. On the Wednesday before her appointment I called the transport service to confirm all was in order, particularly as my mother is in her nineties and frail and would need a wheelchair. They confirmed the booking and assured me my mother would be picked up between 12: 00 and 12: 30.

At 13: 25 on Friday my mother called me to say the ambulance had not yet arrived. I called the transport service who said they would call me back within 5 minutes. They did not call me back.

I called again and was told an ambulance would be at my mother’s in 10-15 minutes. This time it did arrive just as I had been told.

Despite having pre-arranged a wheelchair the ambulance crew did not have one with them and asked my mother if she would be able to walk to the ambulance with a Zimmer frame. My mother was unable to do so, the ambulance people got my mother’s wheelchair ad took her in that.

My mother was late for her appointment as a result of this delay but she was seen at the clinic and returned home.

Because of the hospital appointment I had rearranged the times when her carers and district nurse would be able to go and see her. The district nurse was scheduled for 4: 30 to dress a wound on her leg, when she arrived she found my mother had been settled in her armchair by the ambulance crew and the wheelchair had been left in the living room. It was clear my mother was too frail to be able to fold up and put away the wheelchair by herself and would have found it difficult to get around it with her Zimmer frame if she had needed to go to the bathroom or kitchen whilst she was alone.

The District Nurse folded and put away the chair.