Elderly patient with dementia found confused in street after Arriva leaves him outside wrong address

An elderly man with dementia was found wandering and confused in the street after a private patient transport company left him outside the wrong address.

Barry Gutteridge, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and dementia, was found wandering and confused outside the bungalow he once lived in.

The alarm had been raised shortly before 7pm on Tuesday, September 13 when the care home where Barry Gutteridge lives called his family to say the 76-year-old had not returned from his routine hospital appointment.

Mr Gutteridge, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, had been expected at around 3pm.

Instead Arriva Transport Solutions at the bungalow where he once lived.

Arriva Transport Solutions has apologised and said it has launched a full investigation as to what went wrong.

Mr Gutteridge's daughter, Deena Goodwin, from Thurmaston, said: "It was our worst nightmare.

"The care home called my sister who lives in Groby and luckily a passing social worker and psychiatric nurse had seen our dad and managed to contact the care home.

"They had found dad outside his old home in Braunstone."

Mrs Goodwin, 53, added: "Dad was really distressed.

"He recognised the bungalow but could not understand why he couldn't get in and wondered where all his things had gone.

"It was just awful. He has no road sense and anything could have happened to him.

"He was just dropped there after the hospital but no-one had seen him."

Mr Gutteridge moved from Braunstone to Holmes House in Wigston due to his Alzheimer's and dementia in June.

But every month he has to attend outpatient appointments for four days running at Leicester General Hospital for an unrelated condition.

Mrs Goodwin said: "Dad has been collected and returned to the care home since June when we emptied the bungalow.

"He had lived in it for seven years so you can imagine how distressing it was for him. He does forget things within a few minutes but he recognised the house but obviously didn't understand why he couldn't get in."

She added: "The care home has been fantastic but we are all very angry, this could have ended in tragedy.

"Dad was very unsettled for about three days, he knew something wasn't right but thankfully he seems to have settled down a little now, but I don't want this to happen to anyone else."

Arriva has apologised for the failure.

Andrew Cullen, national head of patient transport services said: "We have been in regular contact with Mr Gutteridge's family following this incident to apologise for the service he received as well as to assure them that we are taking this matter seriously and investigating it fully.

"Once this process is complete we will provide the family with a full report of our findings as well as any actions we have taken as a result."

SOURCE: Leicester Mercury, Cathy Buss