'A life cut short': No ambulances available for man

A driving instructor died of a cardiac arrest after his wife had to take him to hospital in rush hour traffic because no ambulances were available.

An inquest heard how three emergency calls were made when David Mann fell ill during a lesson, but ambulances were stuck outside hospitals waiting to hand over patients.

The Worcestershire coroner has written to the health secretary and NHS England to try to prevent future deaths. David Reid said lives were being put at risk due to ambulances being held up outside hospitals when no beds were available.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said it had the worst hospital handover delays in England and Wales and was working with hospitals to reduce this.

David Mann's wife Elaine said: "It's just ridiculous. But if there aren't any ambulances available, there aren't any ambulances available.

"I don't blame the paramedics, it's not them. What is government doing about it? What is NHS England doing about it? It's just awful that people are being let down and losing their lives."

An inquest heard David was taken ill during a 17-year-old girl's driving lesson in Bromsgrove on 13 January. She called 999, but no ambulances could come.

She called her mother, an off-duty GP, who attended the scene, and two further emergency calls were made, to no avail.

They called David's wife and she drove him to the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

The off-duty doctor travelled with them, having made a fourth call to say they were en route.

Elaine said: "At that time of night the traffic was just awful, with all the roadworks. I struggled to get through the traffic.

"And David managed to ask 'Where?' twice and we gave him a running commentary of where we were and I remember touching his leg and saying, 'Hang in there, David, hang in there'."

The inquest heard David suffered a cardiac arrest when they arrived at hospital. Staff worked on him, including carrying out chest compressions.

But they did not give him a shock with a defibrillator, in accordance with current guidance.

The coroner gave a narrative conclusion, saying David probably would not have died had an ambulance arrived on time and if he had been defibrillated.

Elaine said she was in "total shock" at the findings.

"He's just been badly let down. Not just because of the ambulance, but because of the treatment at A&E as well. He should still be here."

She described her husband as a "true gentleman", who was kind and patient with a positive outlook on life.

"He was the cleverest, funniest, loving person. His life has just been cut too short too soon."

West Midlands Ambulance Service said when David was taken ill, the service had been experiencing "significant delays offloading patients at hospital".

It added: "In total, we lost 2,312 hours that day, the equivalent of taking 192 ambulances off the road.

"In addition, despite making over 250 specific requests to hospitals to take patient handovers due to outstanding high priority cases, these were refused more than 200 times."

A spokesperson added: "There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly."

Dr Jules Walton, chief medical officer at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, offered David's family "our sincere and unreserved apology" and accepted there had been failings in his care.

She said they had "strengthened the training provided to our clinical teams caring for patients who present with similar symptoms. We are also continuing work to improve ambulance handover times and reduce delays for patients attending our emergency departments.

"Where the coroner's findings identify any further action we need to take, we will do so."

The Department of Health said: "Our deepest sympathies are with David Mann's loved ones. Far too many patients have suffered unacceptable delays for urgent care services in previous years and in far too many cases, that has led to tragic consequences.

"So even though last winter saw the best performance on ambulance and A&E waits for almost half a decade, we know there is much more to be done and that's why we are sending in teams of experts to struggling areas, including in the Midlands, to identify why these problems are occurring and take urgent action to address them."

Elaine said: "Me and all the family have got to live with that, knowing that he probably needn't have died. He was a fit, well man on the outside."

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