After receiving a number of complaints about the local patient transport service, Greg called a meeting with the company that provide the service, G4S, and West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group who arrange the contract.

After the meeting, Greg said:

"I told both G4S and West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group that the poor service that they have been providing is unacceptable. Patients have been left stranded for hours, often late into the night, in London hospitals and have also sometimes been picked up so late that they have missed vital appointments. The people that use the service are often very unwell and it is crucial to their health that they can rely on getting to their medical appointments on time.

"The local NHS Commissioning Group told me that there have indeed been problems with the new contract which, for the first time, included journeys to London hospitals. They said that they realised quite quickly that it had been a mistake to include these so the responsibility for journeys to London hospitals has been passed back and priority given to journeys to local NHS appointments.

"I had also been told by patients that complaints about the service had been unanswered and that they had not been kept updated when things did go wrong. In response to this, G4S has set up a new dedicated complaints team and have committed to improved customer service including letting people know if, for example, a vehicle is running late.

"I welcome these steps but I will be keeping a very close eye on how things go over the coming months. If anyone experiences any problems with the patient transport service, I would be very grateful if you could let me know."