"I was not able to contact the transport service via phone"

In our previous correspondence, you will remember that my 88yr old husband had fall, breaking his right arm just below the shoulder. An appointment was made for him to go to a Fracture Clinic at a hospital 25 miles away from where we live (Exeter), so the care therapist, who comes every morning ( and is so kind), suggested that I should phone Patient Transport and ask for an ‘assisted ambulance’ to take us there as my husband has a balance problem, and is having difficulty using his Zimmer frame with one hand.

So I phoned during the morning. A recorded voice informed me that I was in a queue, and then the music started. I listened to that for 22 minutes, when, suddenly another recorded voice said, ‘We are very busy, please call again later. ’ and the connection was broken. In all, I made three more phone calls, but was only able to ‘hold on’ for between 10 and 15 minutes as I had calls on my time.

Fortunately a friend was able to help us, as when we reached the hospital, the disabled parking was taken and we had to go to the main car park, and had to navigate 100yards with great difficulty as we had no idea where to get the required wheelchair. However, with our friend’s help we made it, but it would have been so much easier had two very elderly people had the required transport.