MORE THAN 4,000 PAST FIVE YEARS
T HOUSANDS of complaints have been made against Welsh Ambulance Service staff over the past five years – with the trust forced to fork out more than £150,000 in compensation.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that between the start of 2013 and the end of 2017 a total of 4,072 complaints were made against the trust’s frontline ambulance staff, call centre employees and volunteers.
The most common reason for complaining was the failure of staff to respond to incidents in a timely fashion, which accounted for nearly a quarter (914) of the overall total.
Other reasons included the attitude of its employees (299), communication (140), the standard of driving (59) and the quality of clinical assessment and treatment (100).
More than half (2,292) of the complaints were directed at those in the emergency medical service – which includes frontline paramedics – while 1,767 involved the ambulance control centre (call centre) and 13 at the volunteer first responder service.
In addition the Freedom of Information request revealed the number of “serious adverse incidents” reported to the Welsh Ambulance Service between the start of 2013 and the end of 2017.
They include “any incident that resulted in patient or stakeholder dissatisfaction, personal injury to a patient, visitor, member of staff, member of the public or volunteer or loss or harm to the trust or its property”.
Overall there were 185 serious adverse incidents reported out of a total of 15,137 incidents within that time period.
A total of £155,219.20 was awarded in compensation by the trust between January 1, 2013, and December 21, 2017.
This includes actual damages, solicitors’ fees and sundries (charges for medical records).
Kevin Payne and his brother Vincent came to the aid of their elderly mother Patricia when she suffered a devastating stroke at her home in Ely, Cardiff, on Tuesday, January 23.
Despite dialling 999 immediately they waited more than an hour for an ambulance – and resorted to taking the 71-year-old to hospital themselves.
Kevin, who owns a fishing tackle shop, said: “My brother Vincent phoned my mother and said he couldn’t understand a word she was saying.
“Vincent then called me in work and, as my shop is only across the road from where she lives, I closed up and went straight over.
“By the time I got there my brother had already arrived and called the ambulance.
“We waited for an hour and 20 minutes and it still hadn’t turned up.”
Kevin claims he then spoke to an ambulance call handler himself who told him his mother “was not deemed a priority”.
“My mother was in the middle of having a stroke and was deteriorating in front of us,” added Kevin.
“They didn’t explain why my mum wasn’t a priority. We’re always told on leaflets and things that you have to act fast when a stroke takes hold.”
He claims the call handler then told the brothers that they’d be better off taking their mother to hospital themselves because crews were so busy.
“I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” he said.
“This is the second time she’s had a stroke and the second time we’ve had to take her to hospital ourselves.”
Kevin said they drove Patricia to University Hospital Llandough – just like they did during her first stroke – only to be told they needed to be at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in Cardiff instead.
“The staff at Llandough said they’d try and get an ambulance to take us to UHW,” Kevin added.
“But because they couldn’t get one within 15 minutes they decided to administer the clot-busting drugs themselves, which apparently they don’t normally do.”
Scans revealed that Patricia had indeed suffered a stroke and was eventually taken to UHW, where she still remains almost two weeks later.
“She’s got a long road to recovery,” Kevin said.
“She’s lost the use of her muscles on her right hand side and she can only put together a couple of words.
“It took three hours between her stroke and them giving her the clotbusting drugs.”
Following the incident, Kevin said he emailed the trust on February 1 to complain.
Greg Lloyd, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s interim operations manager for the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board area, said: “We’re sincerely sorry to hear about Mrs Payne’s experience and appreciate how distressing this must have been both for her and her family.
“As the details concerning this case are particularly complex we will be contacting Mrs Payne’s family in order to understand and fully investigate what happened.
“In the meantime our thoughts and best wishes are with them.”
Bus driver David Addis needed the help of paramedics when he fell in Cardiff city centre in November last year. The 63-year-old tripped on a paving slab in Westgate Street,