A SWANLEY grandmother was left "completely deaf" over Christmas after an ambulance failed to turn up on time to pick her up for an appointment.
Joan Moss, 92, had been waiting for an Audiology appointment for two months after her hearing aids started playing up.
The grandmother-of-two had an appointment booked in at Gravesham Community Hospital in Bath Street at 5.30pm on December 17 for which she had the option of a non-emergency ambulance to take her there.
One was booked to arrive and Mrs Moss sat patiently waiting by the front window of her home in St George’s Road for her ambulance.
But one didn't arrive until 6.10pm- 40 minutes after the appointment had been due to start.
Mrs Moss’s daughter Jackie Griffiths, 64, who is a retired healthcare and nursing lecturer at North West Kent College said: "I am incensed at the way she has been treated.
Mrs Moss was left waiting by the window wondering when her ride would show up.
"My mother was upset because she was waiting at the window thinking she had missed them and then she was in a state when they didn’t turn up.
"They just seem to have a cavalier attitude with this."
Mrs Griffiths has given up trying to book another appointment for her mum because she doesn't trust the ambulance company.
The concerned daughter added: "The community hospital won’t even send someone out to my mum.
"I have found it hard to get a continuity of care for mum and she has been left feeling frustrated and depressed.
"She cant manage where she cant hear anything and is looking at going into a home or getting some care.
The 92-year-old with daugher Jackie Griffiths.
NSL Care Services took over all non-emergency patient transport in Kent and Medway on July 1 last year.
A spokesman said: "Regarding Mrs Moss, it would seem that at our Dartford base we use two different call signs - one for early start crew and another for late crews.
"This job was mistakenly planned onto the early crew therefore would not have been picked up by the later crew when they arrived on shift.
"By the time the error was found it was too late and Mrs Moss had missed her appointment.
"We can only offer Mrs Moss and her family our unreserved apologies."
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