Two hours for ambulance to get injured man to Leighton (updated)

This weekend, a visiting cricketer badly injured his knee at Audlem's cricket ground. Knowing how long ambulances have been taking to reach the village, a careful note was taken of the time the ambulance was called on a mobile phone at 2.00pm. After 25 minutes, the ambulance had failed to turn up and another call was made.

The ambulance eventually arrived at 3.05pm, 65 minutes after the initial call. The ambulance crew admitted they had not received the call until 2.40pm, forty minutes after the initial telephone call requesting an ambulance urgently. It appears no call was made to the First Responders in Nantwich as the injury would not be covered by the now much reduced service – see Audlem Online story about last week's protest march, reported on 12th July.

After the crew worked hard to make the injured man comfortable as he was in much pain, the ambulance eventually arrived at Leighton Hospital just after 4.00pm, two hours after the first call was made.

This is the sixth significant failure by ambulances reported on Audlem Online although an analysis of the official statistics shows there have been many other problem call-outs that failed to get anywhere near the 'targets'.

Sometimes the failure is down to the sheer distance ambulances have had to travel to get to Audlem, indicating a severe lack of cover in south Cheshire. This time, the failure appears to be the delay between the call centre receiving the call for an ambulance and a crew being alerted. It hardly increases confidence in a service that has achieved the almost unique distinction of attracting a huge protest march through Nantwich, hardly a hotbed of militancy and protest. This area continues to be badly let down by a so-called emergency service.

NWAS have since provided a statement, received at 12.12pm on 16th July. It says: "The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) received a call at 14:00 pm on the 13th July to attend a male patient who had sustained a knee injury at Audlem Cricket Club. This was classified as a Green call ie. not serious or immediately life threatening. The NWAS ambulance target for green calls is one hour.

"An emergency ambulance was allocated at 14:04 pm but was reallocated and diverted to a to a lady with serious breathing difficulties in the Nantwich area. Red calls relate to serious and immediately life threatening incidents and have the highest priority to the Ambulance service.

"Attempts were made to locate a further ambulance and as soon as a vehicle and paramedic crew were available they were allocated to the Audlem incident at 14:40 pm.

"The emergency ambulance attended on scene at 15:02 pm and treated the male casualty before transporting to Leighton Hospital.

"NWAS monitors its performance on a daily basis to ensure its resource profile is correctly allocated and that it is providing the right level of cover to serve its communities. The clinical care of patients is always of prime importance in directing its emergency vehicle response."

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