Seriously-ill patients say they are being let down by the poor timekeeping of a hospital transport service.

A group which goes to the renal unit at Kent and Canterbury for kidney dialysis blames G4S for the failings.

They say vehicles are often late collecting them in the mornings and can leave them waiting hours to be taken home.

Speaking out for frustrated patients is 47-year-old Tim Lukins, from Aylesham, who has total kidney failure and needs dialysis three times a week.

He claims that since G4S took over the contract two years ago, the transport vehicles have only been on time for him on a handful of occasions.

“It’s an absolute disgrace and frankly completely unacceptable from what is supposed to be one of the biggest firms in the country,” he said.

“I don’t blame the drivers themselves – they try hard – it’s the administration at head office that needs sorting out.”

But the company disputes the allegation and says the service it runs to the K&C is punctual more than 90% of the time.

“I don’t blame the drivers themselves – they try hard – it’s the administration at head office that needs sorting out...” - Tim Lukins

Tim, who lives in Hill Crescent, had been a fit groundworker until he suffered heart problems aged just 35, and then a stroke, which then led to kidney failure in 2015.

The dad-of-four says the previous transport provider, NSL, never let patients down, and claims the problems started as soon as G4S took over.

“I have to get myself ready to be collected for my dialysis session, which starts at 7.15am, but they are rarely on time and that can cause problems for nurses when patients arrive on the ward late.

“I have a four-hour session but that can easily turn into an eight-hour day by the time I get home, which is very tiring.”

Retired cook Sheila Keller, 69, from Querns Road, Canterbury, says she recently had to wait seven hours for a lift home, which added to the stress and tiredness following her treatment.

She has multiple health issues as well as kidney failure and has been receiving dialysis for five years.

“I have sent a formal letter of complaint to G4S, which I was assured would be investigated, but have heard nothing back,” she said.

“They are late at least once a week, which is not nice when it is such an exhausting day anyway.”

Former printer Keith Robjant, from Beltinge, is equally unimpressed with the service.

The 57-year-old, who is fighting leukaemia, said: “They’re usually late to collect me at least once a week and on one occasion when I had to go to hospital in London, they kept me waiting six hours before I got a lift back, which made it a pretty stressful and tiring day.

“I even had one chap turn up in an ambulance and complain to me that he didn’t know how to drive the thing, which wasn’t exactly reassuring.

“They really need to sort it out.”

Another patient, 68-year-old Dave Allen, added: “It’s very frustrating because we never used to have these problems.

“The trouble is that the control room is in Chelmsford now and they just don’t know the geography of the place.”

Last week, members of Kent County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee heard claims that big improvements had been made in the patient transport service in the county in the last six months.

The service is commissioned by Clinical Commissioning Groups whose representatives were at the meeting along with bosses from G4S.

Ian Ayres, managing director of the of Medway, North and West Kent group, admitted it was “still not perfect” but the contract has been reworked so that G4S could buy extra ambulances and hire more permanent staff.

He also told councillors that there would also be a fairer system to rank performance, which currently recorded the same level of failure if an ambulance was five minutes or five hours late.

Patient Transport Services managing director Russell Hobbs said: “We have a good track record of delivering high-quality patient transport services across the country, with more than 325,000 journeys completed in Kent last year.

“There is a high demand for our service and the vast majority of our patients make their appointments on time.

“Renal services are a key part of our contract, and so far this year we’ve made over 54,000 journeys transporting patients to their dialysis appointments. We understand that these patients need a timely, regular and consistent service, and in March 92% of patients to Kent and Canterbury Hospital arrived on time.

“Where the level of service provided is not good enough we always apologise, deal with any issues and seek to improve the service.”

It is not the first time G4S has come under fire for lateness.

The firm runs two contracts: one taking patients from Kent and Medway to acute hospitals and a second transporting patients for renal dialysis.

But in the first year, its patient transport team received “unprecedented levels” of complaints – many relating to delayed journeys for outpatient appointments.

In March, the company said it was taking steps to improve performance after a report revealed the service was falling short of targets and did not have enough drivers or vehicles to meet demand.

On a key measure to ensure patients arrived for a scheduled appointment on or within the time slot, the report revealed G4S hit the target on 71% of journeys – short of the contract threshold of 95%.

G4S said many patients were not ready when they were collected and pick up times changed on the day.