An Audi crashed and embedded in the side of a barn at Strumpshaw.Picture: James Bass
Strumpshaw crash casualty waited hour and a half for ambulance
Kim Briscoe, Health correspondent
Friday, October 19, 2012
9:02 AM
The casualty hurt when a car crashed into a teenage boy’s bedroom at the weekend had to wait more an hour-and-a-half for an ambulance, it has emerged.
An Audi crashed into the side of a family home in Strumpshaw, near Norwich, at 2am on Sunday.
There were four people in the sporty convertible, one of whom suffered a minor head injury and a paramedic arrived on scene at 2.15am.
However, an ambulance was not available until 3.41am to take the casualty to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
One of the residents in the house, Ben London, 15, escaped serious injury after the car crashed into his bedroom, causing serious damage.
A spokeswoman for the ambulance service said: “We are investing 160 extra hours’ vehicle coverage a week in Norfolk which will also be better deployed to where patients need it so we can directly tackle issues relating to occasional delays. Despite meeting the targets we are commissioned for and recent improvements in performance these particular calls were not satisfactory and we will be carrying out full investigations into each so we can resolve them directly with the complainants. We would like to reassure the public, however, that this is not reflective of the service as a whole, where a recent patient satisfaction survey showed out of a sample size of more than 100 only one patient did not give wholly positive feedback and where compliments outnumber complaints by nearly three times.”
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12 comments
And yet again no mention of the Ambulances held up at the Norfolk & Norwich and unable to hand over their patient to the hospital staff. A quick visit to the N&N at the time stated, would have shown you the reason for the delays. At most times of the day and night you can see up to 15 Ambulances parked outside the A&E department and there they stayed parked sometimes for upto 2hours. Paramedics are highly-skilled clinicians and can in certain circumstances actually save your life so don't tell me that they "count for little".
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swnorwich
Friday, October 19, 2012
You mean to say that a portable x-ray machine isn't standard issue kit for a football team? What a shocker. Too much stock is given by Ambulance Trusts to the telephone assessment process in ambulance despatch. In an effort to deal with rising demand, phone triage was the cheaper alternative to providing the necessary frontline staff. Inevitably, this leads to these kinds of episodes as dispatchers attempt to withhold ambulances for the more critical calls. If there were given enough ambulances to start with, it wouldn't be an issue.
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Mathew Westhorpe
Friday, October 19, 2012
Either the injured individual was driving whilst drunk or willingly got into a car that was being driven by a drunk. So it would seem they got the treatment they deserved.
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el84
Friday, October 19, 2012
The boy was unharmed.The driver was drunk so who cares if an ambulance was even sent let alone an hour and a half late.
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wes1975
Friday, October 19, 2012
"a paramedic counts for little".....what a foolish remark....justified apparently because one once , several years , ago made an error of judgement.
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LARSON.E. WHIPSNADE
Friday, October 19, 2012
Patient feedback is not worth the paper it is written on-leading questions are common on such forms and it is possibile that the forms could be handed only to those using take you home ambulances. Be interesting if a reader who has used an ambulance recently could comment on the use of feedback forms.The dispatcher could not have known the severity and as in the case of the footballers unqualified people can not be expected to diagnose a need for urgency-a paramedic counts for little,consider the child with meningitis who died because a paramedic sent away the ambulance. A diagnosis needs a doctor, ambulances should have to get patients collected and in hospital as quickly as possible. I would have most likely died a few years ago if an ambulance had not arrived very quickly.
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Daisy Roots
Friday, October 19, 2012
He had a minor head injury. No emergency then. No story.
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LARSON.E. WHIPSNADE
Friday, October 19, 2012
A paramedic was on scene & treated the patient. If it was an emergency the ambulance would have got there a lot sooner but it wasn't an emergency so I'm afraid people have to wait their turn--My wife was dealt with in exactly the same manner & had to wait 2 12 hours at home for an ambulance to arrive & the ambulance service rang us on many occasions to make sure the situation wasn't getting worse & if it was worsening an ambulance would arrive asap, that's life & we'd better get used to it.
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Cynic
Friday, October 19, 2012
The Board of EEAST should be removed with immediate effect and a serious examination undertaken to see if legal proceedings are justified. The Chief Exec is bailing out and has been supported by the Chair a review of the last CE Board report contained 50% verbage about the success of the Olympics and arranging a staff presentation nothing about the abysmal failures of the service. Senior and Maqnagement heads must roll. Where are the local MP's and what are they doing about this. Death can only result if something is not done. Maybe it will take an idividual or their family more like to sue them.
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Roy Gooch
Friday, October 19, 2012
they now seen to be more than occasional delays and none of those caused by your very hard working staff get it together ambulance service as you are costing peoples lives.
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MrB
Friday, October 19, 2012
These waits are unacceptable and becoming more common. Recently, an old lady waited two hours in Sheringham, lying on the road in pain. What sort of society are we to allow this?
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julygirl
Friday, October 19, 2012
Defensive comments from the ambulance service. It implies that, in this case, the response "met the targets we are commissioned for" . Too right it was "not satisfactory" to have to wait for an hour and three quarters at two in the morning. Strumpshaw is not especially remote. Adding on the half hour [or more] it probably took to get to A&E, the injured car occupant was waiting for over two and a half hours before getting proper treatment. It would be interesting to follow up this story and find out what the actual ambulance deployment is across Norfolk in terms of units, locations and times of day. Thankfully, in this case, there were no other casualties requiring hospital treatment. Makes you wonder what would happen if there was a serious emergency on the roads or railway. Just because the lights go off at 1am it doesn't mean the county comes to a standstill.
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JCW
Friday, October 19, 2012