Man found dead in Woodbridge eight hours after ambulance call

The East of England Ambulance Service apologised to Mr Hart's family and said improvements are needed

A man was found dead by a family member more than eight hours after calling for an ambulance.

Christopher Hart, 50, called 999 at 01:00 GMT on 25 November 2022 but was found unresponsive at his home in Woodbridge Suffolk at 09:30.

A coroner said the "delay directly contributed to Christopher's death" in a report warning of a risk of future deaths.

The East of England Ambulance Service said response improvements were needed.

In the report, addressed to the Secretary of State for Health, the coroner said: "Due to high service demand, and ambulances waiting to off-load their patients at the local hospitals, no ambulance was immediately available."

He was graded as a Category 2 call, which should have had an average wait time of 40 minutes and a target wait time of just 18 minutes.

However, an ambulance did not arrive at his home until after 09:30 - eight-and-a-half hours after his call.

A family member found him unresponsive and not breathing on his living room floor.

His medical cause of death was given as coronary artery atherosclerosis, a narrowing of the artery.

'Future loss of life'

Suffolk senior coroner Nigel Parsley said he heard evidence from a patient safety officer at the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) that "despite previous measures put in place, there are continuing and regular instances of non-availability of ambulances occurring in Suffolk and the wider East of England region".

A consultant interventional cardiologist told the coroner that if an ambulance had arrived within the target time, drugs available to paramedics and taking him to hospital "would, on balance of probabilities, have saved his life".

The "continuing lack of sufficient ambulance resource in Suffolk will lead to future loss of life," Mr Parsley said.

A spokesman for EEAST apologised to Mr Hart's family and said the trust would consider the report carefully.

He said: "As we related to the inquest, at the time of this incident the trust was under significant pressure due to 999 call volume and hospital handover delays.

"Since the start of 2023, our response times have improved due to work to increase the number of frontline staff and available ambulances, but we recognise there is a lot more work needed by us and our partners to improve our response to patients."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "No one should have to wait longer than necessary to access urgent and emergency care. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family of Christopher Hart.

"Our Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan includes getting 800 new ambulances on the road and increasing hospital capacity by 5,000 more beds, all backed up with dedicated funding of £1bn.

"This is alongside £1.6bn over the next two years to reduce the number of beds occupied by patients who are ready to be discharged - improving flow through hospitals and reducing ambulance handover delays."