A NURSE at Basingstoke hospital said staff are regularly turning up late because of an unreliable bus service provided by Stagecoach.

Eric Blewusi described the problems as “grossly unacceptable to the healthcare community”.

The 33-year-old from Basingstoke catches a bus from the train station or bus station to the hospital with other colleagues.

However, he said the buses are frequently cancelled, resulting in hospital staff having to pay for taxis to get to work and then arriving late.

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The staff nurse said: “There seems to be a problem with priorities when it comes to honouring bus schedules. Cancellation of bus trips seems to be skyrocketing especially the buses to Baughurst, a route that is plied by most workers of North Hampshire Hospital where most people in and around Basingstoke receive healthcare.”

He said the number of cancelled buses to Baughurst during peak hours has caused “increased dissatisfaction” among hospital staff, particularly nurses, who are arriving late to work as a result.

Eric said that most nurses buy monthly or weekly bus cards which are underutilised, adding: “It is more frustrating when we buy return tickets but never use them because our expected buses are cancelled.

“Due to trip failures, we incur extra costs if we have to pay a fare of between £8-£10 for a taxi from the town centre before we could report to work on time. This is becoming the order of the day, putting pressure on personal budgets.”

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He added that arriving late to work has a knock-on effect, impacting work routines.

“Imagine your surgery is delayed because your nurse did not arrive on time to prepare you for it,” he said.

Despite complaining, Eric said Stagecoach has not addressed the problems or apologised to its customers.

“This is purely insensitive and grossly unacceptable to the healthcare community,” he said, adding: “The transport company needs to show a sense of care towards healthcare staff and ensure that buses plying the hospital route, especially between the hours of 6.45am to 8.15am and 6.45pm to 8.45pm are prioritised.

“This is important to help promote punctuality among health workers which inadvertently, would result in better work outcomes.”

A Stagecoach spokesperson said: "Driver shortages are continuing to impact the bus and coach sector right across the UK and this is having an impact on our services in Basingstoke.

"Unfortunately, sometimes this means cancelling services, this remains a last resort and kept to a minimum. Customers can keep up to date with service information via our Twitter.

"We are also taking proactive steps to alleviate the situation by recruiting new drivers and are focused on getting our new team members through our training programmes and on the road as soon as we can."

They added: "We are sorry for the customers recent experience with Stagecoach. Driver shortages are affecting bus and coach companies across the UK, it takes weeks to get new recruits through the system to replace leavers and short-term sickness can also affect service levels too. This is all managed by the local operations team who work incredibly hard to ensure cancelations remain a last resort and we continue to run the majority of services as normal."