Brian Mills
17 Nov 2016 · Coroner Geoffrey Sullivan · Hertfordshire
A similar concern from this report was raised again 4 times later. See the linked reports.
The coroner's concerns
1. outstanding emergency calls and waiting times
“Consistently high levels of outstanding emergency calls and waiting times that far exceed the service's own target response times are likely to put lives at risk.”
2. persistent high volume of unassigned emergency calls
“heard evidence that this was not an unusual amount of outstanding calls or an unusual level of waiting time. This was the position on the 26" January 2016 and | heard evidence that this is still the position now.”
Linked reports
Closely relatedConfidence 0.85 · high
This report
“Consistently high levels of outstanding emergency calls and waiting times that far exceed the service's own target response times are likely to put lives at risk.”
Later report
“The amount of time taken for the ambulance to arrive which was markedly outside the Trust's guidelines.”
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
This report
“heard evidence that this was not an unusual amount of outstanding calls or an unusual level of waiting time. This was the position on the 26”
Later report
“There were no emergency ambulances available to assign to this call due to high call demand.”
Closely relatedConfidence 0.85 · high
This report
“Consistently high levels of outstanding emergency calls and waiting times that far exceed the service's own target response times are likely to put lives at risk.”
Later report
“There were no emergency ambulances to respond to the initial 999 call due to high demand on the service”
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
This report
“Consistently high levels of outstanding emergency calls and waiting times that far exceed the service's own target response times are likely to put lives at risk.”
Later report
“Availability of ambulances to carry out transfers in a timely manner, in urgent cases, between NHS Hospitals and in responding to 999 and 111 calls in the community.”
Responses
2016-0416-Response-by-East-of-England-Ambulance-Service-NHS-Trust.pdf ↗· East of England Ambulance Service
Stated action
“we have introduced a process which instigates the release of ambulance crews from queues in A and E departments to attend to patients in the community with life threatening conditions.”