Managers of a hospital transport service have apologised to a woman left waiting over four hours for a lift home from an appointment.
Stephanie Spiby, of Saffron Lane, Leicester, sat in a wheelchair in reception at Glenfield Hospital from 10.45am on September 25 and finally got home at 3.45pm.
She tried to complain to Arriva Transport Solutions but said no-one had contacted her.
The 65-year-old said: "No-one came out to see if I was all right while I was waiting and one security guard even joked he would have to move me on for loitering if I was there for much longer.
"I tried to ring Arriva and left my name and number but no-one bothered to get back to me."
Ms Spiby said she experienced another delay on Thursday, when she waited from 10.45am until 1pm to get home from Glenfield.
Arriva has been under fire for poor performance since it was awarded a five-year, £26 million contract for patient transport services in July 2012.
After the Leicester Mercury contacted the company about Mrs Spiby's experience, she received a call apologising for the delay.
She said: "An apology is all I wanted."
Tony Athersmith, head of service for Arriva in the East Midlands, said: "I am sorry to hear about the delay experienced by Mrs Spiby and apologise for any stress or inconvenience this has caused.
"The hospital notified us Mrs Spiby was ready to be collected at 12.54pm on September 25.
"We aim to collect patients within one hour and, unfortunately, on this occasion were unable to do so.
"We are working closely with our NHS partners to ensure the timeliness of our service improves.
"Our performance has significantly improved during the past few months and we are committed to delivering further improvements."
Latest available figures show that in August 73 per cent of patients were collected from their appointments within one hour.
Although the target is for 90 per cent of patients to be collected within this time, it was up on the 56 per cent figure in June.
Mr Athersmith said: "While we acknowledge we are not reaching the targets set in all areas, there has been a steady improvement in the service we provide for our patients.
"For example, patient arrival times have improved by 26 per cent since the start of the contract and in the past few months have increased from 74 per cent in July to 80 per cent in September.
"There are still improvements to be made and we are committed to achieving these.
Robin Wintle, associate director of contracts with East Leicestershire and Rutland clinical commissioning group, which monitors the contract, said: "We are sorry to hear of the problems this patient has experienced and we continue to work closely with Arriva to investigate all incidents and ensure they are resolved and lessons are learned."
