INQUIRY PLEA AS DOSSIER OF Patient froze to death after 16hr wait for ambulance

A PATIENT froze to death after waiting 16 hours for an ambulance as our creaking health service struggled to answer 999 calls, an NHS whistleblower has claimed.

The shocking case is among more than 20 deaths blamed on long delays at the East of England ambulance service as crews struggled to meet demand.

A dossier of incidents now under investigation include the case of the man in his 50s believed to have frozen to death in Lowestoft, Suffolk, last month.

Others include a patient in Norwich who is said to have died after a seven- hour wait for an ambulance following a cardiac arrest and a 13-hour wait for a patient who suffered a fall.

An NHS insider at the scandalhit trust told the Health Service Journal that at least 40 patients were “harmed or died following significant ambulance delays” in less than three weeks between mid December and early January.

Crisis

The revelations come as figures obtained by the Sunday People show the full extent of the A&E crisis crippling the NHS. They show that patients spent as long as 24 HOURS in A&E at one in five hospital trusts. In the Lowestoft case the ambulance service said police alerted them with concerns about a man who was sitting outside his home on December 27. But as he was breathing and conscious with “no obvious injuries” the service said it decided not to send an ambulance. A second call was made 16 hours later and an ambulance arrived within eight minutes but the man was already dead. The leaked dossier reveals the patient “appears to have frozen to death”. Last night Labour health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth demand a full inquiry into the “shocking and tragic” allegations. He insisted: “Families who have l ost a l oved one deserve nothing less than to be given answers.” The trust’s medical director, Mark Patten, announced his resignation a day after details of the deaths emerged. However, the trust said his decision to quit had been taken last November.

Last night one paramedic told the Sunday People: “This is the worst crisis we’ve ever had. We have really let people down.”

Norwich South Labour MP Clive Lewis told the Commons last week 20 people had died in cases when ambulances arrived late to emergencies after 12 days of increased levels of calls.

They include the death of an 81-year-old woman at home in Clacton, Essex, after waiting more than four hours for an ambulance. She had phoned 999 complaining of chest pains.

He says he was told by the whistleblower t hat senior operations managers wanted to move the trust to the highest state of alert on December 19 – but delays meant a final decision was not made until New Year’s Eve.

The Sunday People previously revealed how the trust had splashed out £574,000 on hiring management consultants to advise it on how to save money.

It also doubled spending on luxury cars for bosses to more than £825,000. Staff blamed the crisis on years of mismanagement, saying a recruitment freeze on top of unprecedented demand for ambulances had left the service in complete chaos.

Extreme

In response to the tragedies, a trust spokesman said they were a “small proportion” of 999 calls.

“The trust had plans in place, however experienced extreme levels of demand over the new year period in particular,” she said. “The trust was unable to