Ambulance failures led to deaths of two pensioners
TWO pensioners were ‘neglected’ by the ambulance service, which left them to die in their homes despite repeated 999 calls from their families, an inquest ruled yesterday.
Maurice Goodwin, 87, and Daisy Filby, 90, were left helpless and in pain for hours after being ‘failed’ by South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAMB).
Senior coroner Alan Craze concluded that ‘neglect’ contributed to both deaths in East Sussex in 2017 after the service’s call-taking system failed to register the urgency of their situations. He said the system ‘was not fit for purpose in 2017’.
Ambulance call handlers are not medically trained. They take details, ask approved questions and log the information into the computer system. Mr Craze said in the case of Mrs Filby ‘only a properly-trained human being could have listened to the call and made decisions’.
Mr Craze said: ‘That system has failed Mrs Filby and her daughter.’ The inquest in Hastings heard how Mrs Filby was left wedged face down on the floor after a fall in her home in Seaford for two hours before she died of ‘postural hypoxia’.
Her severely disabled daughter Linda – who was upstairs – repeatedly called 999 as she was unable to help. The first call was made at 8.42am by Mrs Filby, who was heard crying out in pain in an audio recording played in the hearing. Four more calls from her daughter followed.
But help only arrived at 10.24am, when the pensioner was pronounced dead. Mr Craze concluded that she died as the result of an ‘accident contributed to by neglect’ and said the ambulance service has ‘grossly failed’ the mother and daughter. He added: ‘It is clear from the tapes that there is no understanding between caller and call taker. This was a “red one emergency” from minute one. There was a failure to provide basic medical attention.’ Call handlers should have the ‘freedom to ask common sense questions’.
In the case of great-grandfather Mr Goodwin, help did not arrive for more than three hours despite his wife Barbara calling 999 to say he was bleeding from a recently fitted catheter, the inquest heard. The father- ofthree was left to slowly die slumped at his dining table at home in Eastbourne after the ambulance service referred the case to community health workers despite repeated calls from Mrs Goodwin.
Mr Craze said the call-handlers were told Mr Goodwin was bleeding, but moved on to questions about whether he had any sores or blisters. The coroner concluded he died of ‘natural causes contributed to by neglect’.
A third death – that of Anthony Harding, 84 – had also been linked to the late arrival of an ambulance. Mr Craze said: ‘The problem ultimately is systemic and the heart of it is the calltaking and decision-making system.’ He said it is likely that pressure had been huge to use resources efficiently.
A SECAMB spokesman said: ‘Since the incidents, a significant amount of work has taken place to improve the service.’
‘Wedged face down on floor’