A woman with mental health issues missed three medical appointments and a 98-year-old woman with dementia was left waiting at a hospital for three hours as an ambulance patient transportation service struggles to cope with increased demand.

Management at Cheriton Care Home in Chesham Bois have called for urgent changes to the way South Central Ambulance Service’s non-emergency transportation scheme is run, as patients are repeatedly late for or missing appointments.

Eighty one-year-old William Jarvis says his wife, Margaret, who suffers from bipolar, has missed three appointments since July and fears the stress may have an impact on her mental health.

The Amersham resident said: “The first two in July – the ambulance didn’t arrive. We are phoning the ambulance service and they are just saying they will do things to make sure it is sorted – and it doesn’t happen.

“I have got something called COPD which means I suffer from a bad chest so I can’t take her. The care home where my wife is, because I can’t look after her, they look after her well and make all the appointments.

“My wife has got bipolar – what if all these missed appointments make her worse and she gets sectioned again?

“My wife is very happy at the care home, I am very lucky that she is happy there. I get on well with the manageress.

“I am told by the care home that this is happening all the time. We all know how bad the NHS they are all up against it and under staffed and the people running this appointment service are making it worse.”

Manager at the care home, Karen Bowden, said ambulance staff do not contact the care home if they are running late.

She added that on Monday SCAS arrived to collect a 98-year-old dementia patient, who also suffers from diabetes, 25 minutes after her hospital appointment was due to start.

The elderly woman was then left waiting for three hours with her carer in Amersham hospital, as an administration error meant she was not collected following her appointment.

Ms Bowden said: “It has just been the last four months, they have been turning up late, they don’t inform you if they are going to be late.

“You have to ring them and find out where there are then ring around the hospitals to tell them they are running late. It is time consuming.

“I would like them to put a policy in place so if they are running late then they can see which appointments they have coming up and they ring around the homes and tell the patients.

“It is an NHS service. These people have contributed over the years. It is just a very poor service at the moment.”

SCAS sent its “sincere apologies” to the Jarvis family and confirmed it has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the failings, however they are yet to comment on the latest incident on Monday.

Spokesman for SCAS, Michelle Archer, said: “We take this incredibly seriously and we are constantly working to make improvements to the service we provide. As a result of this we are currently reviewing our rotas to ensure that we have the right resources available for our patients the right time, especially at times of the day when requests for our services are at its highest.”