Almost two hours for emergency ambulance

Sadly, Audlem Online has to report another appalling failure by the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) when a patient suffering a heart attack had to wait almost two hours for the ambulance to arrive at a house just outside Audlem.

The incident happened last month. The family has not felt able to talk publicly about it until now as the patient died the following day at the Royal Infirmary, Newcastle after being rushed from Leighton Hospital.

When the 999 call was made at 7.20pm, a local First Responder arrived on the scene within 10 minutes.

The ambulance was chased on a number of occasions by the first responder and eventually arrived at 9.10pm, a total from the time of the 999 call of 110 minutes. The official target for a 'Red' call, such as for a suspected heart attack, is for the ambulance to respond to 75% of such calls within 8 minutes or 95% of calls within 19 minutes in rural areas.

Local representatives, working with Nantwich Town Council and local MPs Stephen O'Brien and Edward Timpson, have been meeting directors of NWAS over the past year to try to achieve a better ambulance service across south Cheshire.

A further meeting, to be attended by the new NWAS chief executive Darren Hurrell and other senior NWAS managers and directors, takes place this week, on Friday 29th January. This latest failure in Audlem, one of eight described by Audlem Online in recent years, will be detailed at that meeting with the permission of the family involved.

NWAS Director of Emergency Services, Derek Cartwright comments: "The North West Ambulance Service would like to offer its sincere condolences to the family. The Trust is fully investigating this incident and would like to work with the family and their representatives to discuss the outcome of the investigation and their concerns."

Currently just 39.8% for Audlem emergency calls (Red and Amber) are met within target despite a personal promise by the previous NWAS chief executive to Audlem representatives in September 2008 that virtually 100% of Audlem emergencies would be reached by an ambulance within 19 minutes.

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