Christina Ruse
26 Aug 2022 · Coroner Jacqueline Lake · Norfolk
This report repeats 4 earlier warnings, and was raised again 1 time later. See the linked reports.
The coroner's concerns
1. no emergency ambulance available
“There were no emergency ambulances available to assign to this call due to high call demand”
2. ambulance arrival delay
“An ambulance did not become available until 20.54 hours and arrived on scene at 20.57 hours, by which time Mrs [name redacted] had deteriorated further and had been taken back into theatre”
3. delayed response to patient deterioration
“It is accepted that EEAST have taken several steps following the increase in call demand and subsequent delays in responding to patients”
Linked reports
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
Earlier report
“That a patient who has suffered a head injury has to wait for over one and a half hours to be conveyed to hospital”
This report
“There were no emergency ambulances available to assign to this call due to high call demand.”
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
Earlier 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”
This report
“There were no emergency ambulances available to assign to this call due to high call demand.”
Identical hazardConfidence 0.90 · high
Earlier report
“(1) At the time of this incident, demand on the EEAS far outstripped the resources available to them.”
This report
“2. There were no emergency ambulances available to assign to this call due to high call demand.”
Closely relatedConfidence 0.80 · moderate
Earlier report
“The amount of time taken for the ambulance to arrive which was markedly outside the Trust's guidelines.”
This report
“There were no emergency ambulances available to assign to this call due to high call demand.”
Closely relatedConfidence 0.85 · high
This report
“There were no emergency ambulances available to assign to this call due to high call demand.”
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
2022-0265-Response-from-East-of-England-Ambulance-Service.pdf ↗· East of England Ambulance Service
Stated action
“The Trust is working hard with our system partners across the region to ensure that our patients are safe during this challenging period. Like all other ambulance trusts, we are also working with the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) to continue to escalate our concerns.”
2022-0265-Response-from-Spire-Norwich-Hospital.pdf ↗· East of England Ambulance Service
Stated action
“In liaison with East of England Ambulance Service, agree a process to support timely ambulance transfers and early notification of when an ambulance is required”