East of England Ambulance boss sorry after waiting patient dies

Tom Abell said he was "concerned and distressed... at the impact of the current situation"

An ambulance boss has said he is "extremely sorry" after a patient died while waiting an hour for help.

Five ambulances were held up outside James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, at the time, an East of England Ambulance Service board meeting heard.

The meeting also heard that hospital handover delays had led to thousands of hours of crew time being lost.

Chief executive Tom Abell said the delays "concerned and distressed" him.

Mr Abell, who took over in August, said these were "the most demanding and sustained operational situations" the trust had ever experienced.

Board papers reveal the trust control room received a Category 1 call at 21:03 on an undisclosed date.

Such calls are to life-threating conditions - for instance, a cardiac or respiratory arrest - and the target is for 90% of ambulances to arrive within 15 minutes.

However, the ambulance did not arrive until 22:03, by which time the patient had died.

Last month a patient died in the back of an ambulance queuing outside the James Paget University Hospital

At the time there was a five-hour delay in freeing up vehicles parked outside the James Paget, and no other resources were available to be diverted.

In his report to the board, Mr Abell said: "We continue to lose significant numbers of frontline ambulances to delays at hospitals across the region with over 12,000 hours of ambulance time being lost in October due to ambulances queuing outside of hospitals over the national handover of 15 minutes.

"These delays have had a direct impact on the number of patients which have come to harm and the number of serious incidents we have reported since June 2021, the majority of this resulting because of delays in being able to get ambulances to patients (often as a result of an ambulance waiting at hospital for handover).

"The board members will be as concerned and distressed as I am at the impact that this current situation is having on our ability to deliver the standard of care and I am extremely sorry to those patients, families and colleagues which have been affected."

'Working collaboratively'

Last month the BBC revealed how a patient suffered a fatal heart attack in the back of an ambulance after it queued for more than two hours outside the James Paget's accident and emergency department, just days after local NHS services declared a maximum alert.

Responding on behalf of the James Paget, a spokesperson for the NHS in Norfolk and Waveney said: "Demand on our emergency departments and across healthcare services across Norfolk and Waveney continues to be very high.

"We are working collaboratively with the ambulance service to keep patients safe during periods of high demand and to prioritise patients according to clinical need.

"This comes at a time when social distancing and infection prevention and control measures are still in place to control the spread of Covid-19."

The ambulance trust has been putting additional measures in place to prepare for extra demand this winter.

A target to recruit 100 new call handlers had been making "good progress", with 50 people appointed so far.