Ambulance chief resigns over 111 scandal
THE NHS chief at the centre of the 111 call scandal exposed by The Daily Telegraph has been forced to quit.
Paul Sutton, chief executive of South East Coast Ambulance trust, has been under mounting pressure to resign since an inquiry revealed he ordered a scheme under which there were deliberate delays for up to 20,000 patients.
The covert operation put in place last winter forced high-risk cases in the South East automatically to wait up to twice as long if their call came via the 111 helpline.
The trust’s chairman resigned in March just before the inquiry’s report was published, criticising lax governance at the organisation.
Mr Sutton has been on paid leave while the trust “determines the appropriate actions to take”.
The trust said he had left “to pursue other interests”.
Under NHS rules, calls designated as “life-threatening” are supposed to receive an ambulance response within eight minutes – regardless of whether the caller dials 999 or the non-emergency 111 line. But the trust, which covers Sussex, Kent, Surrey and North East Hampshire, put 111 calls in an automatic queue, adding up to 10 minutes to their wait. The report said that Mr Sutton “made the ultimate decision to proceed with the pilot and played a critical leadership role throughout”.
It criticised a number of managers involved in the secret protocols. They include Geraint Davies, then director of commercial services, who was responsible for gaining approval from local NHS commissioners. Mr Davies, who was singled out for failing to alert them to plans to delay responses to “life-threatening” calls, is now acting chief executive.