THE family of a 90-year-old Tredegar man demands an apology from health chiefs after he was sent home by ambulance four days after having a pacemaker fitted, wearing just thin cotton pyjamas and a pair of slippers.

They say the man, who does not wish to be named, had to walk from the ambulance to his front door in cold and windy conditions late on Monday afternoon.

His daughter Angela Jones, who lives in Swansea but was at his home when her father arrived, said it took all evening for him to get warm and recover.

She is concerned other frail and elderly patients might also be sent home in inadequate clothing.

“My father had been in (Abergavenny’s) Nevill Hall Hospital for two weeks and had a pacemaker fitted four days before he was discharged,” said Mrs Jones. “At 5.35pm the doorbell rang. I opened it to see an ambulance man and my father being helped off the back of the ambulance by his colleague.

“My father was in a pair of thin cotton pyjamas and slippers. The weather was cold and windy and he’d been in a warm hospital for two weeks. He had two bags with him containing wearable clothes and a dressing gown. But nobody had thought to get him to dress, or wear the dressing gown, or put in blanket around him. There are elderly, frail patients who come out of hospital every day. Are they being sent home like this, inadequately dressed? Where is the common sense?”

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said a formal complaint has been made: “This is currently being looked into and we will be responding directly to the family as soon as our investigations are complete,” said a spokesman. The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust did not respond.