Vulnerable patients’ "lives are being put at risk" due to a delay in installing the phone lines at their new premises, a St Albans care service claims.

Home Instead Senior Care, who provide at-home care for elderly people do not want to move to a residential centre, planned to relocate to Porters Wood on April 1.

BT were due to install phone lines on this date, but work was stalled as the internal line was buried under the floorboards.

But since then they have failed to send an engineer or tell Home Instead when the problem will be resolved.

Co-owner Fiona Harrall said staff have been left "frustrated" and "distressed" by the situation which has left them stuck in their current premises in Sandridge while also paying rent on the new building.

Many of Home Instead’s customers are dementia sufferers who are visited by carers over four times a day.

Mrs Harrall said they were concerned for their vulnerable patients when they received a letter from BT saying their Sandridge office phone lines would be cut off on Monday, April 13.

She said: "We immediately rang and explained the problem with our move not going ahead because the lines were not in.

The call centre we spoke to said they couldn’t help and we had to speak to our business manager.

"We have had two e-mails confirming that the line will not be cut off but I am very nervous that we will come in on Monday morning and that the lines will have been cut off.

"I am so frustrated I want to cry. If we do not have phones then we can’t operate at all. They just don’t understand the urgency of installing the new lines.

"We have told them we are dealing with vulnerable patients."

BT said they were planning on getting the lines in on Monday.

A BT spokesman said: "A survey needs to be carried out to determine what is needed to give service.

"We are aware of the urgency and are doing all we can to get this installed as quickly as possible."