A pensioner recovering from a leg amputation is being forced to miss vital physiotherapy appointments because of blunders by officials organising his transport.

Henry Howe, from Bevendean, Brighton, has weekly sessions at Brighton General Hospital to help build his strength following surgery earlier this year.

The 73-year-old needs to have two crews to help move him from his bed to the ambulance to transport him to and from hospital.

But his wife Alice Howe, 74, says one crew keeps being sent out by mistake.

She said: “It has happened several times now and it is really annoying and upsetting.

“We have reminded people so many times but it still keeps on happening.

“It means Henry either misses his appointment altogether because a second crew can’t be found or he is late for his appointment.

“These sessions are important. Missing them really isn’t helping and is making him depressed. I just want the problem to get sorted out.”

'Bad experience'

The ambulances are provided by South East Coast Ambulance service (Secamb) and bookings are arranged by a central NHS-run Patient Transport Bureau.

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group said: “We are sorry to hear that Mrs Howe and her husband have had a bad experience with our patient transport service.

“We will continue to work closely with Secamb and the patient transport bureau to look at how they are recording requirements and requests of their call outs to try and make sure this sort of thing does not happen.

“In the meantime we would urge Mrs Howe to contact us directly at SSCSU.complaints@nhs.net or call 01273 574655 so we can take all the details of her complaint and investigate fully.”

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