Warning over waiting times
HEALTH Secretary Steve Barclay has been given until January 10 to respond to a letter from Cornwall’s chief coroner, Andrew Cox, warning that the crisis in ambulance waiting times will lead to more tragedies.
Mr Cox wrote to Mr Barclay after the deaths of four people raised concerns about the health crisis in Cornwall, which has left patients waiting hours for ambulances or for hospital beds to become available.
Mr Cox told Mr Barclay: “My enquiries and the inquests that have been conducted have revealed matters giving rise to concern. In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths will occur.”
CORNWALL’S chief coroner, Andrew Cox, has written to Health Secretary Steve Barclay demanding action is taken to prevent further deaths in the Duchy, after the deaths of four people raised concerns about the ongoing health crisis in Cornwall.
Mr Cox told Mr Barclay: “My enquiries and the inquests that have been conducted have revealed matters giving rise to concern. In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”
His stark warning comes after inquests into the deaths of 87-year-old RAF veteran David Morganti, from the St Austell area; Winnie Barnes-Weeks, 90, of Hayle; Bob Conybeare, 83, a former teacher at Humphry Davy School in Penzance, and tourist Tony Reedman, 54.
Mr Morganti died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro in April, after sustaining a head injury in a fall. An ambulance took nine hours to arrive. A consultant neurosurgeon at University Hospital Plymouth told an inquest: “Had he reached hospital prior to his deterioration and his warfarin treatment been reversed rapidly, there is a chance that the continued bleeding which ultimately caused his death may have been slowed or stopped, in which case he may have survived.”
Mr Cox concluded an inquest into the death of Mrs Barnes-Weeks in September, which heard that she lay on the floor of a care home waiting 19 hours for an ambulance to arrive, following a fall which caused a broken hip. Mr Cox said: “Winnie died following an accident, the effect of which was exacerbated by a long delay in an ambulance taking her to hospital.”
Mr Conybeare collapsed and hit his head and was treated at the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske in January. He was assessed as fit to leave, but suitable discharge arrangements could not be put in place because of the crisis in social care. He suffered two falls in hospital and died at Treliske in March.
During the course of his inquest, evidence was heard from a nursing witness at the Truro hospital, who said: “During this time, the Trust had a significant number of patients waiting [for] ongoing care in the community. In February 2022, on average we had 36 patients waiting [for] discharge home with care package support, 33 patients waiting for ongoing rehabilitation in a community hospital and 51 patients waiting for care home placement or bedded care assessment.”
On Monday, assistant coroner Guy Davies concluded an inquest into the death of Mr Reedman, who passed away after suffering a stroke while on holiday in Cornwall in June. It was stated that an ambulance delay of twoand-a-half hours reduced the chances of his survival. The court heard that the ambulance service had sufficient resources for the level of demand, however, there was no available ambulance to respond because ambulances were detained at the Royal Cornwall Hospital due to the inability to offload patients at the Emergency Department.
Mr Cox told the Government: “All of the cases have recurring themes, being long delays in ambulance attendance and/or long delays in admission into the only acute hospital in the coroner area, Royal Cornwall Hospital.”
As part of the coroner’s investigations, the medical director at the South Western Ambulance Service Trust told Mr Cox that the difficulties are not due to a shortage of ambulances or to an unanticipated surge in demand, but that the ambulances are “in the wrong place at the wrong time”. Mr Cox said: “When they are required for emergency responses, they are parked outside Royal Cornwall Hospital with patients in the back for extended periods. On occasions this summer and autumn, there have been queues of over 20 ambulances outside the Emergency Department and delays have been longer than a paramedic’s shift.”
The hospital’s medical director told Mr Cox that the equivalent of five wards of patients in the hospital were medically fit to be discharged but there was no available intermediate/social care bed or a required care package available.
Mr Cox heard from Cornwall Council that one of the council’s main providers of care had closed three homes – Trengrouse in Helston, Mountford in Truro and Headlands in Carbis Bay – due to an inability to employ suitable staff. The closures resulted in the loss of over 110 beds.
Mr Cox told the Health Secretary: “In my opinion, action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action.”