Hospital transport delays left an 80-year-old woman waiting for hours to get home.

Margaret Courtney was booked in for a 2pm check up at Airedale Hospital and did not return home until almost 7pm.

And all she had to eat or drink for the day was a glass of water.

Mrs Courtney, (pictured) who has been in a wheelchair since 1984, said: "This just isn't good enough - and it's not the first time it's happened either."

She said she was initially meant to see a specialist at the hospital at 2pm on February 8. The appointment had been arranged to check up on a cough she had developed.

But the ambulance did not pick her up from her home until 2.15pm and she could not see the specialist until 3.30pm.

"The appointment was only about 20 minutes and then one of the nurses took me to reception," she said.

"I asked her how long I'd have to wait for transport home and she said it was going to be a while'.

"There were two vehicles there but no drivers."

She said she had to wait until 6pm for a driver and a vehicle, but this only left the hospital to drop patients off in Sutton before returning to Airedale.

It then set off again but Mrs Courtney, who lives in Kennedy House, Ingrow, was further delayed when it paused to drop people off at Merlin Court in Keighley.

The vehicle did not reach her flat until five to seven in the evening - more than four-and-a-half hours after she first left home.

Her daughter, Elizabeth Robinson, who lives in Keighley, said people of her mother's age deserved better treatment.

She said the hospital needed to take another look at how its elderly and disabled patients are transported to and from appointments.

An Airedale Hospital spokesman said the Yorkshire Ambulance Service handles non-emergency transport for patients with mobility problems.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "We can confirm that a Patient Transport Service vehicle was due to pick up a female patient from her home in Keighley on Friday February 8 and take her to Airedale Hospital for a 2pm appointment.

"However, due to a high demand on the service and unexpected additional volume of work that day the vehicle was late.

"The patient's return journey was originally arranged for 3pm, but the patient was not ready to be collected until 4pm.

"Unfortunately we were not able to collect the patient until nearly 6pm.

"Yorkshire Ambulance Service always aims to collect patients for their return journey within one hour of them being ready, but on this occasion this wasn't possible.

"We apologise for the inconvenience caused."