Top doctor’s family call for probe into ambulance delays on day he died of cardiac arrest

The family of a senior medic and lifelong NHS campaigner have called for an investigation into his death as it took paramedics more than half an hour to arrive at his home after operators were told he was suffering a cardiac arrest.

Professor Kailash Chand, a former British Medical Association deputy chair, had complained of chest pains before one of his neighbours, a consultant anaesthetist at Manchester Royal Infirmary, called 111 for help before telling the call handler within three minutes that he believed his friend was having a cardiac arrest.

“I was answering their questions when Kailash’s eyes began rolling and he slipped into unconsciousness. That’s when I said ‘this looks like a cardiac arrest’ and to upgrade the call. They kept asking questions as I started CPR and asked for an urgent ambulance. That was two or two and a half minutes into the call."

Evidence seen by i News shows that it took another 30 minutes after the neighbour told the operator about the cardiac arrest for the paramedics to arrive at Professor Chand’s flat in Didsbury, Greater Manchester.

National standards for ambulance trusts show that ambulance trusts must respond to category 1 calls – those that are classified as life-threatening and needing immediate intervention and/or resuscitation, such as cardiac or respiratory arrest – in 7 minutes on average, and respond to 90% of Category 1 calls in 15 minutes.

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Source: iNews, 3 September 2021