Ambulance service pays out £150,000
THOUSANDS 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 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 clotbusting drugs themselves, which apparently they don’t normally do.”
Scans revealed that Patricia had indeed suffered a stroke and she 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 clot-busting drugs.”
In response to the complaints figures disclosed following the freedom of information request, Claire Bevan, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s director of quality, safety and patient experience, said: “While it’s naturally concerning when anyone is unhappy with our services, we actively encourage patients to give feedback so that we can learn from them and improve their experience of the care we provide.
“Our staff and volunteers are committed to providing the best possible standards of care in order to deliver a first-class service.
“It’s important to note that the number of concerns and adverse incidents raised is equivalent to less than 1% of the more than 2.2 million emergency calls we received in the last five years.
“During the same period we also received 3,074 compliments from patients who were grateful for the outstanding care they were given by our hardworking teams both out on the road and in our clinical contact centres.
“The trust investigates all concerns brought to our attention thoroughly and we’ve made significant improvements to develop a robust system for patients to raise concerns or give compliments.
“We will continue to engage with the people of Wales and work in partnership to help shape and further improve the services we provide.”