County ‘ran out’ of ambulances due to hospital waits

A Shropshire ambulance service boss has said the county “ran out” of vehicles because all vehicles were queuing outside hospitals.

 

Mark Docherty, nursing and clinical commissioning director of West Midlands Ambulance Service, said other areas had to provide cover for the county during the shortage, adding that the issue had led to a delay in response times.

 

Mr Docherty said to the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee “Two weeks ago today we ran out of ambulances in Shropshire and Telford.  What I mean by that is every single ambulance we had was stuck outside a hospital with a patient on.

 

“This isn’t about blame or pointing fingers.  This is about us all acknowledging that we’re in a very difficult position.”

 

He added that the ambulance service was “really struggling” to get to category three incidents, classified as urgent rather than life threatening.

 

Following the meeting, a spokesperson from the West Midlands Ambulance Service, said “It is wrong to say that the trust ran out of ambulances in Shropshire as our service continued to respond to patients with crews from other areas.

 

“Unfortunately, the whole of the NHS remains under severe pressure which means patients are sometimes waiting longer for an ambulance response.”

 

They went on to say that they were working with all NHS partners to reduce the delays.

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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