Ambulance transfer delays are 'matter of concern', coroner warns
The availability of ambulances to transfer patients to specialist units is a "matter of concern", a coroner has warned.
Darren Stewart, area coroner for Suffolk, made the comments in a Prevention of Future Deaths report.
It followed the death of 84-year-old Dennis King, who waited three hours to be transferred from West Suffolk Hospital to Royal Papworth in 2022.
Mr King had made his own way to the West Suffolk Hospital's accident and emergency department in December 2022, after being told an ambulance could take six hours to arrive at his home due to high demand in the area, the report said.
His call had been graded as category two, which should have led to a response within 40 minutes - or a target of 18 minutes.
After tests at West Suffolk Hospital showed Mr King had suffered a STEMI heart attack, emergency clinicians liaised with experts from the regional heart unit and decided he needed an urgent transfer to Royal Papworth in Cambridgeshire.
The report said a matron at West Suffolk told ambulance call handlers they needed an urgent transfer - but because Mr King was classed as being in a "place of safety", control room staff said the delay would be "several hours".
Mr Stewart said: "the availability of ambulances to carry out transfers in a timely manner, in urgent cases" was "a matter of concern".
In the report, Mr Stewart said the circumstances of the case "raised concerns about the NHS approach to centralising care in regional centres" if the means to deliver it were "inadequate".
Source: BBC News, 23 January 2024