Thousands of frail and vulnerable patients arrive late for check-ups at hospitals and face long delays to return home, a shock report by ambulance chiefs has revealed.

The report by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service highlighted critical failures affecting patients using the patient transport services to hospital or day care.

A survey of about 30,000 patients across Yorkshire has discovered only two in five arrive for their appointment on time – with 36 per cent delivered late and 20 per cent more than 30 minutes early.

For 1,246 patients using Bradford hospitals services, the late figure is a staggering 61 per cent, with 92 per cent of patients facing waiting times of an hour or more to go home.

The figures for Bradford patients having treatment for mental health problems were even worse, with 84 per cent of the 115 patients surveyed arriving late for appointments and 27 per cent waiting for an hour for return journeys.

The 913 patients surveyed at Airedale Hospital fared slightly better with 38 per cent arriving late. But the figure for those patients waiting for an hour to go home was 84 per cent.

Ambulance chiefs have pointed to “large-scale late and early delivery”, which affects the running of hospitals and fails to meet contracted standards.

They have admitted major changes are needed to “outdated” services and have urged the patient transport unit to “fix the frontline” by ordering a review. That could mean some contracts being axed.

Shipley MP Philip Davies said: “The figures are damning. It is totally unacceptable that elderly and vulnerable patients should be waiting so long to be taken for routine medical care and, quite clearly, they should be providing a better service for their customers than they are doing. They need to radically improve their performance, particularly given the knock-on effect this has on medical staff.”

Sarah Fatchett, interim operations director for patient transport service at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said it had been working hard to improve the quality of its service but admitted that “significant” improvements needed to be made.

She said: “We undertake over 1.6 million patient journeys per year and one of our priorities is to get people to their appointments on time.”

She said new ways of working piloted in Leeds and Scarborough are set to be rolled out across Yorkshire.

She added: “One of the ways in which we plan to do this is to liaise more closely with each hospital and identify different ways we can work together better.”

An Airedale Hospital spokesman said the figures quoted are “not reflective of current performance standards”.

A Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT spokesman said: “We are aware that the Yorkshire Ambulance Service has had performance issues in the past. However these have been recognised and are being addressed, with recent evidence showing that the service is much improved.”