Pensioner, 95, died after 4-hour wait in ambulance queue

A pensioner of 95 died after waiting almost four hours in a queue of ambulances outside a hospital.

lilly Baxandall was taken to casualty after banging her head, but despite arriving before 5.30pm, she was not admitted until 9.05pm.

A coroner yesterday warned that unless changes were made to the labour-run Nhs in Wales, it could leave itself open to charges of corporate manslaughter.

Miss Baxandall had been found by her cleaner at her bungalow, in Abergele, North Wales, on september 1, 2014. A paramedic called for an ambulance and Miss Baxandall, who was still conscious, eventually arrived at Glan Clwyd hospital, near Rhyl at 5.26pm.

But there was a shortage of 21 beds across the site and a queue of up to 13 ambulances as managers faced a ‘pressure cooker’ situation, Ruthin Coroner’s Court heard. Miss Baxandall’s condition deteriorated and she fell unconscious.

she was seen by a doctor in the ambulance, who ordered a brain scan at 8.10pm. But it wasn’t until 9.05pm that she was finally admitted to the resuscitation unit – more than three-and-a-half hours after reaching the hospital.

Government guidelines state the handover time from ambulance to hospital should be no more than 15 minutes.

tests subsequently revealed a serious bleed on the pensioner’s brain and she died of pneumonia four days later.

Described as ‘fiercely independent’ by relatives, Miss Baxandall grew up in Rochdale and worked on the family farm, before driving ambulances in the second World War.

she then went on to be a catering manager with British Airways.

Although the inquest was told she would not have survived even if treated sooner, coroner John Gittins warned there was a serious risk of future deaths unless urgent changes were made to the Nhs in Wales.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, he said: ‘if we allow these problems to continue, there is a very real and significant danger, not only that future deaths will occur, [but] there’s also a degree of potential culpability – be they of a civil or criminal nature, touching in the realms of gross negligence manslaughter.’

Adam Griffiths, head of nursing at Glan Clwyd, apologised to Miss Baxandall’s family.

‘Significant danger’