Nearly a quarter of elderly patients attending Cambridgeshire hospitals say the journey makes them feeling worse than before they set out.

They report long and uncomfortable journeys on public transport and it can be a ‘postcode lottery’ if the NHS steps in to help with hospital transport.

Age UK for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough also warns that “over-stretched and poorly co-ordinated” hospital-provided transport can leave patients waiting alone for hours to be returned home.

Melanie Wicklen, the county’s chief operating officer of Age UK said: “It seems ridiculous that so many older patients feel terrible following a hospital appointment – not because of what happened at the hospital but because the travelling is so difficult.

She said Age UK Cambridgeshire was launching a ‘painful journeys’ campaign to put pressure on the Government to review transport services for hospital patients.

She said a recent survey by Age UK had revealed that 18 per cent of over 65 year olds have reported feeling worse after their transport to and from hospital.

The campaigns aims to ensure every hospital journey for an older person is “comfortable, affordable, keeps stress and anxiety to an absolute minimum, and gets them to and from hospital in good time”.