LUNG cancer patient Eric Spencer is angry after being stranded at hospital for more than three hours because his transport didn’t turn up.

Eric, 79, of Dawlish Road, Swindon, had attended a radiotherapy appointment at the Churchill Hospital, in Oxford, on Thursday, October 9 when the incident happened.

He expected to be picked up after his session by the non-emergency patient transport, run by Arriva, at 3.30pm but wasn’t collected until 6.45pm.

Despite telephoning the company and being given assurances that they would call him back to explain the problem, they never did.

Eric, who was left waiting with another patient, was contemplating a 40-mile taxi trip home when the Arriva vehicle finally arrived.

The pensioner, who lives with wife Dorothy, 79, said: “I think it is disgusting the way that they have treated me. To leave me stranded for so long is just horrible.

“This incident caused me a great deal of stress, at a time when I’m of ill health, and it worried my family as they didn’t know where I was.”

Eric, who has to travel to and from the Oxford hospital for seven weeks, said that after the incident an Arriva driver told him his transport had been diverted to another job.

He first started using the service three weeks ago and has to have treatment five days each week.

“I believe it is a good service and the crews are perfect but the orders they’re being given are very strange and there seems to be no co-ordination,” Eric said.

“Arriva has a responsibility to ensure that their service is prompt and efficient, with clients afforded the respect of accurate and concise communication, not left abandoned 40 miles from home with no information when transport will arrive.”

Eric has sent a formal complaint to the company and they said they’re investigating the matter.

He said: “I want a letter of apology and assurances that this will never happen again.”

Ed Potter, head of South West, Arriva Transport Solutions, said: “I am sorry to hear about the delay Mr Spencer experienced on October 9.

The crew assigned to collect Mr Spencer from hospital had to be re-assigned to collect another patient who needed to be prioritised due to their medical condition.

“This decision was made on clinical advice from the hospital.

“However, I am very disappointed that we did not communicate with Mr Spencer and I would like to apologise for the distress this caused.

“We will learn from this and I appreciate Mr Spencer bringing this incident to my attention.

“I encourage any patient who has a comment or complaint about our service to contact our patient experience team by emailing patientcustomerservice@arriva.co.

uk.

“Feedback from our patients is vital to ensuring we improve and where challenges arise we deal with these with our patients’ needs in mind.”

Arriva took over the service in December and have had similar incidents.

In January, six people were left waiting at Great Western Hospital for several hours as the company struggled to cope with demand.