AN out-of-hours doctor service has launched a full investigation into how a pensioner was left waiting nearly three hours for an ambulance.

A locum doctor was called to see 83-year-old Gwendoline Stevenson, who was suffering from pneumonia, but a misunderstanding meant no ambulance was ever called to take her to hospital.

Shortly before 11am on Sunday, Mrs Stevenson's daughter, June Wilson, was called to say an ambulance would be taking her mother to Darlington Memorial Hospital in about an hour.

When she arrived at the hospital, at noon, she was told her mother had not arrived.

And, after waiting until 1.40pm, there was still no sign of her mother and she was advised by hospital staff that no ambulance had been called.

Mrs Wilson collected her mother from her home in Greenbank Court, Darlington, and Mrs Stevenson was eventually treated at the hospital for her pneumonia and related heart problems.

Last night, Cleveland Health Call, which organises the out-of-hours service, admitted it had been at fault and apologised for the error.

Pauline Smith, manager, said: "I am afraid it was our fault. There was a misunderstanding."

She added: "Our doctor informed the operator he had made an admission and wanted an ambulance, and the operator thought he had called an ambulance."

The mistake was not picked up on by the service and, after the doctor moved on to another call, Mrs Stevenson was left waiting.

"Basically, the doctor didn't come back and ask the operator whether or not she had fulfilled his request," she said.

"The doctor has worked for us for more than 20 years and it has never happened before. It's been a human error and we are very, very concerned. I will be looking into our protocols and practices to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Mrs Wilson said: "It's unbelievable that these things actually happen. You would think they would have some sort of log of phone calls to say that these things had been done.

"It could have been really serious if it had been a major heart attack or anything along those lines."

Mrs Stevenson is recovering in hospital.