Stroke patient dies in hospital following six-hour wait for ambulance in Milton Keynes

Patricia Mulholland, 71, was taken ill at her Bletchley home with classic signs of a stroke, say her family.

"She lost the use of her legs, she was dizzy, hot, clammy and had a pain at the back of her head,” said her daughter Donna.

"We called an ambulance at 12.30pm and gave all the symptoms. We waited and waited, but no ambulance came.”

Donna said she received a call at 2pm from the 999 operator to check her mum’s condition.

She added: "By then her speech was becoming slurred – another stroke symptom. We were told an ambulance would arrive shortly. But the hours went by and still there was nothing.”

Donna said another call came at around 5pm to check Patricia’s state but this time her mum could barely speak and was deteriorating rapidly.

"We were told it would not be long. But the ambulance finally arrived at 6.15pm. By the time mum was lifted out of bed and arrived at the hospital it was 7pm.

"It’s common knowledge that early treatment is vital in the case of a stroke. We can’t help thinking the outcome may have been different for mum if she’d been treated sooner. She should not have been left suffering for all that time.”

Former Mercedes Benz and Argos office worker Patricia was admitted to Ward 7, where tragically she died five days later.

The cause of death was given as a secondary stroke and pneumonia/fluid on her lungs, say the family.

They have been too devastated to lodge a complaint but asked the Citizen to investigate why the ambulance took so long to arrive.

“We just don’t want anyone else to go through what we did,” said Donna. “We understand the ambulance service is busy but surely stroke patients should be prioritised?

"And we should be told the truth about how long an ambulance will take to arrive so people can have the choice of driving the patient to hospital themselves if necessary.

"We were unable to lift mum out of bed because she couldn’t move, or we would have considered taking her there ourselves.”

The Citizen passed the family’s timings and complaint to South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) on Monday and we are awaiting a full response.

A spokesman said today: “We are currently reviewing the account provided to us by the MK Citizen so we can provide clarity around the actions taken.”

He added: “In the meantime we would urge the family to contact us with their concerns so we can discuss these directly and provide a full response. Our Patient Experience Team can be contacted on 0300 123 9280.”

Research earlier this year showed South Central Ambulance Service was not hitting crucial response targets when attending life-threatening incidents – but it was still one of the country’s top performing trusts.

The service’s assistant director of operations Paul Jefferies said at the time: "All ambulance services across the UK are facing a challenging time with the impact of the Covid pandemic on staff sickness levels and rising patient demand not just for emergency 999 services but right across the NHS health system.”