Health chiefs admit patients have been badly let down by a private ambulance service and there are still problems - despite some improvements.

The non-emergency ambulance service is provided by the security company G4S and its performance since taking on the contract has come under sustained criticism.

Ian Ayres, of the West Kent clinical commissioning group (CCG) which oversees the service, admitted that many patients had been let down by G4S.

"We have let down very badly a lot of people. I take that very seriously," he said.

There were 115 complaints about the service in July, most of which were about the time it took to collect and take patients for outpatient appointments.

A report said there continued to be an unprecedented level of complaints regarding the service and the way in which G4S handled and responded to them.

It said some of the issues stemmed from the fact that the contract was offered on the basis of data which did not reflect "the levels of activity... actually required".

Councillors on a cross-party watchdog committee were unimpressed with a report which said there remained problems and G4S had raised questions about the type of service it was expected to provide.

Cllr Dan Daley said the problems were the same faced by the previous contractor before it was sacked.

He said: "It is Groundhog Day. How many more times are we going to listen to this litany of excuses that they [G4S] did not realise what they were going to have to do? We have been talking about this for years... here we go again. I cannot see how G4S are going to improve at all."

The company took over the contract in 2016 from the previous provider, NSL, which was sacked for under-performance in 2015.

Mr Ayres acknowledged there were problems, particularly with patients booking transport and no ambulance turning up.

"We have let down very badly a lot of people. I take that very seriously" - Ian Ayres, West Kent CCG

That had led the West Kent CCG to issue a contract performance notice against the company in July demanding “urgent action” to improve the complaints process.

Mr Ayres said he did not underestimate the impact on patients.

Cllr Mike Whiting, a Conservative county councillor, said that while the number of complaints might be small in relation to the overall number of journeys, “they are very important to families".

Although G4S had a five-year contract, there were ways in which it could be ended, said Mr Ayres.

The contract had already removed a requirement to offer transport to all London hospitals which was adversely affecting the service for patients in Kent, he added.

He admitted the contract “remained problematic” and “it was disappointing that improvements were not as fast as we wanted”.

The committee was told the contract would continue to be monitored and there would be a further six-month review.

Russell Hobbs, managing director of transport services at G4S, said: "We are resolutely committed to patient care and delivering a good service to all those who use our non-emergency patient transport service.

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

“We are improving the way we deal with complaints and have put in processes to ensure we monitor journeys, have dedicated points of contact and proactively manage future appointments where we aware there has been a problem.”