Pensioner's tragic death prompts serious questions about ambulance service in Milton Keynes

The death of an elderly woman who was forced to wait almost seven hours for an ambulance has sparked high level concern from the city’s coroner.

Following an inquest into the sad case of 84-year old Rita Taylor, coroner Tom Osborne has this week issued a rare Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths.

In it, he states: “I am concerned that there are insufficient ambulance service resources to meet the needs of the City of Milton Keynes.”

And he adds: “In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken.”

Mr Osborne’s inquest had heard earlier this month how Rita Taylor had a fall at her home in Dodkin on Beanhill and suffered a head injury.

An ambulance as called at 10.28am but “due to lack of resources” did not arrive until 5.17pm, his report states. Several repeated calls for help were made, but each time there were “no available resources” for an ambulance to be sent.

When Rita finally arrived at the hospital, a scan revealed a large intracerebral bleed. She died shortly afterwards.

"The delays in sending an ambulance resulted in a number of lost opportunities to admit her to hospital and begin her treatment,” states the coroner’s report.

It describes how the first call for an ambulance was logged as a Category 3 incident, with Category 1 being the most serious.

The report states: At that time there were ‘no available resources to send’. At 11.12 a 999 call was made by a passer-by but there were still ‘no available resources’.

It adds: “At 12.16 there was a further 999 call. The incident remained a category three and was ‘still pending in the dispatch queue waiting for resources to become available ‘. At 12.41 a call was made to Mrs. Taylor’s location but there were ‘still no available resources to send’

" At 13.12 A further 999 call was made - ‘awaiting resources to become available’. "

By almost 2pm the patient was drifting in and out of consciousness but still remained a Category 3, state the report. And there were still no available resources.At 2.42 a further 999 was made and at 3.25 the case was upgraded to a Category 2 – but no ambulances were available to send.

"At 16.29 An ambulance was despatched arriving at 17.15. This was 6 hours 47 minutes after the original call and 1hour 49 minutes after category 2 upgrade,” states the report.

By the time Rita arrived in A&E her Glasgow Coma score was 3, the most critical it could be.

Mr Osborne will now send his report to Will Quince, the Minister of State for Health. He is also sending copies to MK Together safeguarding board and the South Central Ambulance Service.

"During the course of the investigation my inquiries revealed matters giving rise to concern,” he stated. “In the circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.”

Several weeks ago, South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, the service that serves Milton Keynes, declared a critical incident because it was under so much pressure.

They said 999 calls were up 50% from the previous year and 111 calls had rocketed by 75%.