An investigation has been launched after a Staffordshire man died waiting for an ambulance on New Year’s Eve. West Midlands Ambulance Service has apologised to the man’s grieving family following the December 31 tragedy.
The investigation also involves an unnamed hospital and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB). It comes as a second patient – in Worcestershire – also died on New Year’s Eve waiting for an ambulance.
An ambulance service spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to the family of a patient who sadly died whilst waiting for an ambulance to arrive on New Year’s Eve. Clearly this is not the level of service we would ever wish to provide. The trust has launched an investigation with the hospital and the ICB into the incident.
“Our staff and volunteers across the service are working exceptionally hard to get to patients as quickly as possible. Sadly, we are seeing some patients wait much longer for an emergency response than we would want as a result of hospital handover delays.
“When ambulances are delayed handing their patient over at hospital, the ambulance crew are unable to respond to the next emergency, which impacts on the care of patients in the community. There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to respond to the next emergency.
“We currently only take about 40 per cent of patients to hospital. The rest are dealt with either over the telephone by experienced paramedics and nurses working in our control rooms or our crews will treat patients on the scene. We spend a large amount of time working hard to use the alternative pathways that are open to our crews to divert patients away from A&E. This is why we take so few patients to hospital. We rely on each part of the health and social care system to work together to allow our ambulances to get to patients quickly. We continue to work hard with our partners to reduce the delays, so that we can save more lives.”
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