North West Ambulance Service response warning after patient death

A coroner has warned that long waits at hospitals in the north west of England are putting lives of patients at risk by holding up ambulance crews.

Coroner Lauren Costello said that the patient had waited 72 minutes for an ambulance, four times longer than the trust’s 18-minute target for that category of emergency call, which “probably contributed to her death”.

A spokesman from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) sad the service was “very sorry” an ambulance was unable to attend sooner and the service had made “significant” improvements since.

An inquest was told NWAS was unable to meet average response standards at the time of the 999 call, mainly due to the fact that “ambulances were unable to clear the region’s hospitals because of long waiting times there”.

The coroner’s report found at the time of the call, the ambulance service was experiencing high call volumes, putting it under extreme pressure and preventing it from effectively delivering the service.

A spokesman from the trust said “significant progress” has been made to improve ambulance response times in the past 18 months by increasing the numbers of ambulances and staff.

Chadwick Lawrence’s Legal 500 recommended West Yorkshire medical negligence solicitors, have over 20 years of experience and specialist expertise in medical negligence investigations and claims, supporting injured clients and their families through the legal process and helping them obtain answers, justice and compensation after life-changing events.  We have offices in Huddersfield, Wakefield, Halifax, Leeds, Bradford and Morley and represent clients locally and nationally.

If you or a relative have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence lawyers on the freephone number below or e-mail us.

Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Freephone : 0800 304 7382