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Apology after 24-hour nightmare ambulance journey
HEALTH bosses in South Yorkshire have apologised after an elderly hospital patient got lost for 24 hours as he was being transferred between hospitals.
Roy Hunter, aged 70, was being transferred from Rotherham General Hospital to Cumbria - a distance of approximately 200 miles - when the driver got lost en route.
The trip should normally take a around three to four hours.
But Mr Hunter and his wife Jan were forced to remain aboard the disorientated ambulance for a full day.
The couple had been staying in South Yorkshire when he was admitted into Rotherham Hospital.
It was later decided he would benefit from a transfer to a hospital nearer his home in the village of Oughterside, near the town of Aspatria, near Carlisle.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Rotherham General Hospital have apologised for the delay in getting Mr Hunter home. A spokesman for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust said: "The trust would like to re-offer its sincere apologies to Mr and Mrs Hunter for any distress caused by the disrupted transfer, which was due to adverse weather conditions."
Mr Hunter is today said to be comfortable in Wigton Hospital, Cumbria.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
