Ambulance serious incidents triple

Serious incidents causing patient harm have increased steeply compared to previous years at an ambulance service whose nursing director still expects will “fail” next month under mounting service pressures.

There were 98 patient harm incidents at West Midlands Ambulance Service in June, official data obtained by HSJ suggests, up from 49 in the same month last year.

The figures show that from April-June this year, 262 harm incidents have been logged – a 240% on 77 in the same period in 2019 and a 71% on 153 last year.

Nursing director Mark Docherty, who previously warned the service was facing a “Titanic moment” and would “all fail” around a specific date of 17 August, said much of the increase can be attributed to worsening hospital handover delays. 

More than 700 people at one time waited for ambulances “that were not going to turn up” on Monday, according to Mr Docherty, who described the situation as a “really dangerous place to be”.

Mr Docherty explained how the harm incidents, including deaths, resulted from growing delays: ”You can’t underplay the risk. If you’ve got 750 patients like we did on Monday waiting, none of those patients have been assessed.

“Sadly, amongst them there will have been patients with stroke who won’t be treated because they’ve waited too long."

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Source: HSJ, 15 July 2022