Elderly Hampshire woman left without food during heatwave

Jacky Johnston

A man whose mother was left without lunch on one of the hottest days of the year has described a meals on wheels company's behaviour as "disgusting".

Jacky Johnston, 82, has dementia, lives in a village in Hampshire and relies on the Apetito service to receive her main meal each day.

Her son Daniel Johnston told the BBC he was "absolutely gobsmacked" by the company's "disgusting behaviour".

Apetito said it was caused by a failure of its electronic system.

The company has a contract with Hampshire County Council to provide three course meals to residents with dementia.

But on Tuesday Mr Johnston was contacted by his mother's carer to say she had been in to see her and his mother had written a note to say no food had arrived on Monday.

The carer prepared food for her and called Apetito to complain, but were told while a meal should be delivered on Tuesday, they couldn't guarantee it.

The carers arranged to return in the afternoon to ensure that if it didn't arrive they could prepare a meal for Mrs Johnston.

Mr Johnston said the reason later given to him was that there was a shortage of drivers due to sickness, and that technical issues accounted for the inability to contact next of kin ahead of time.

Apetito is contracted to deliver meals, such as fish pie, to residents with dementia

Mr Johnston said: "It's an essential service to vulnerable people, and to effectively leave somebody on one of the hottest days of the year on record without a meal at lunchtime without any way of contacting myself… words fail me."

He added: "I don't really care about apologies, it's happened, we are where we are.

"I just need to know that she is going to get a meal every day, and if not I can put contingency plans in place... I dread to think what could have happened in the heat."

In a statement, Apetito said: "We very much regret that a customer missed a meal on Monday as we know our customers rely on us to deliver a hot meal to them.

"We take this matter very seriously and would like to apologise unreservedly to this customer."

Hampshire County Council said the company made "every attempt" using its paper records to deliver the meals.

It added: "We understand how important these meals are and can only apologise to anyone who may not have received their anticipated meal."