Ambulance transport refused resulting in eventual death

groot432

My father died last month aged 60.he had rheumatoid athritis since he was 21.

 In January 2020 he had an infection in a replacement knee and elbow.this resulted in him needing an operation to replace them to remove the infection. My father had surgeons ready to do it as early as June 2020. However he had to attend a number of appointments at the hospital to meet the surgeons,discuss the procedure and have tests done.

He lived in an upstairs flat with 1 flight of stairs around 12 steps. The infection left him with almost no mobility. This meant to get to his appointments he needed an ambulance which he met the criteria for transport.

They took him to 2 appointments without issue but refused any further transport citing health and safety concerns with the stairs.My father had no way of attending without them.we argued with them for 2 years with slow responses and eventually my dad had a Pulmonary embolism,collapsed lung and suspected heart failure.this was down to him having no mobility and little movement all day every day. They took him to hospital for that as it was an emergency.he survived but it all took a toll on his body.

He came out of hospital in March 2022 and we managed to secure a bungalow for him which meant he could go to future appointments.unfortunately by then he was too ill for the operation and had to try and get his levels up to do with nutrition and others.

the infection was untreated,he could barely eat so was malnourished and he had a slow decline for a year until he died last month.he didn't die from a heart attack or sudden event,he died because his body just couldn't fight everything anymore. There were many other areas of concern with my father's care by the NHS but the main issue was the ambulance service.

I have a few questions which maybe someone here can answer.

Can the ambulance service refuse to take a patient to appointments when they literally have no other way of attending?

They cited health and safety but they had equipment to take my father down the stairs.they said it was slippy but there was never any issue.surely they should have the capability to transport severely disabled people down 1 flight of stairs?

There was no attempt by anyone to offer adjustments or a solution, he was simply left to die, should they have offered adjustments and at least tried?

Was this discrimination because of a disability as an able bodied person in the same accommodation would have had treatment?

There is no doubt that he would be alive today if he had the operation any time prior to 2022 and the infection would have been gone.

Thank you for reading this long post.i have already written to the NHS about all the issues and we intend on pursuing a negligence claim but it will take a while and in the meantime I m hoping someone will have some perspective on the ambulance side of things.

lynn365

I don't have any awnsers but so sorry for your loss 💔 
That's disgusting treatment of your dad he should have had proper care so wrong on every level 😡😡

groot432

lynn365 said:

I don't have any awnsers but so sorry for your loss 💔 
That's disgusting treatment of your dad he should have had proper care so wrong on every level 😡😡

Thank you. Hopefully we can get some answers and accountability.

Steve_in_The_City

My heart is going out to you in every respect. 

Ollyoyster

Sending you love, im so sorry, xxx

Alex_Alumni

Thanks for sharing this and I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your father @groot432, I hope we can help support you while you pursue the negligence claim. 

I'm afraid I don't have enough knowledge to answer your questions at the moment, but wanted to share a few organisations you can go to for support if you or an family are having a hard time with feelings of grief: Cruse and The Good Grief Trust. 

Keep us up to date with how things go when you can, and please ask if you feel we can help further

groot432

Thank you all for your comments and kind words.

We have reached out to a local solicitor who gave us some free advice and they believe we do have a claim against the NHS. On their advice we will wait for the NHS complaints process to finish and see what their response is. If we are not satisfied then the solicitor we spoke to has said they would happily take our case on a no win no fee basis. I will update either this post or if it is closed I will make a new post and update when we know more after the complaints process is finished. Hopefully if someone else finds themselves in a similar situation in future it will give some help and advice.

Alex_Alumni

That's positive to hear, thank you for the update @groot432 I hope it won't have to come to a solicitor, but it sounds like they are in your corner if so. I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to hearing more soon

yme

I'm afraid in my experience, the transport service is a rule into themselves. 

I've had them turn up when it's been snowing and refused to take me as it's a health and safety issue.... because they might get injured wheeling me on to the ambulance!

I've had them forcing me to transfer to a seat, even though it clearly states that I am unable to transfer and to remain in my crash tested wheelchair!

I myself have complained about the service... I was told by crew members that if I complained, they could remove my transport!

They turn up late to take me to my appointment, no reason why they are late and say that the hospital has to accept me because I'm a transport patient. I've told them that the hospital are under no obligation to accept me when it's time specified appointments. 

I now always contact the department if I'm not picked up 15 minutes before the appointment to ensure they are aware it's a transport issue and request they make a note as to this reason. Then, should anything happen, they have it recorded. 

In your case, if you have ANY text messages or letters stating your father's reason for not receiving the help then make sure you keep this as evidence. 

Transport is there to assist patients who are unable to use public transport or need medical assistant on route. Your father qualified so therefore this issue should not have happened. 

You need to know if a risk assessment had been done, how, why, when and the results. 

Then you need to find out if they had contacted anyone else, like the GP, adult social care or any other organisations to look into his need to provide assistance for your father. 

Don't forget to add the results you are seeking for like improvement to services, more in depth research into the needs of the patient and how to resolve them. Not just to do a blanket assessment because every Katie t is different, not every medical condition will affect every patient in the same way. So you cannot make assumptions about the same condition as everyone having the same reaction etc. Therefore your father's needs should have been based in how his conditions affected him, how his hone situation impacted on his ability to access transport and his needs for transport. The lack of transport affected his ability to attend assential appointments this added to his deteriotion in his conditions etc.

I hope you get this sorted and you can help change the service for the better as they learn from their mistakes ..mistakes which added to your father's medical conditions to the detriment of his health. 

groot432

yme said:

I'm afraid in my experience, the transport service is a rule into themselves. 

I've had them turn up when it's been snowing and refused to take me as it's a health and safety issue.... because they might get injured wheeling me on to the ambulance!

I've had them forcing me to transfer to a seat, even though it clearly states that I am unable to transfer and to remain in my crash tested wheelchair!

I myself have complained about the service... I was told by crew members that if I complained, they could remove my transport!

They turn up late to take me to my appointment, no reason why they are late and say that the hospital has to accept me because I'm a transport patient. I've told them that the hospital are under no obligation to accept me when it's time specified appointments. 

I now always contact the department if I'm not picked up 15 minutes before the appointment to ensure they are aware it's a transport issue and request they make a note as to this reason. Then, should anything happen, they have it recorded. 

In your case, if you have ANY text messages or letters stating your father's reason for not receiving the help then make sure you keep this as evidence. 

Transport is there to assist patients who are unable to use public transport or need medical assistant on route. Your father qualified so therefore this issue should not have happened. 

You need to know if a risk assessment had been done, how, why, when and the results. 

Then you need to find out if they had contacted anyone else, like the GP, adult social care or any other organisations to look into his need to provide assistance for your father. 

Don't forget to add the results you are seeking for like improvement to services, more in depth research into the needs of the patient and how to resolve them. Not just to do a blanket assessment because every Katie t is different, not every medical condition will affect every patient in the same way. So you cannot make assumptions about the same condition as everyone having the same reaction etc. Therefore your father's needs should have been based in how his conditions affected him, how his hone situation impacted on his ability to access transport and his needs for transport. The lack of transport affected his ability to attend assential appointments this added to his deteriotion in his conditions etc.

I hope you get this sorted and you can help change the service for the better as they learn from their mistakes ..mistakes which added to your father's medical conditions to the detriment of his health. 

Sorry for the late reply.thank you for your comment.

We do have evidence of his GP contacting the ambulance trust several times to stress his need.His GP also referred him for at home visits from his consultant when it became clear the ambulance trust would not help. Unfortunately those referrals barely ever end up being accepted but we did try everything.

Like it seems with your situation, My father literally had no way to get to the hospital without the ambulance trust so he was essentially left to die. I even told them a few years ago that if they don't take my father now he is only getting worse and I m afraid he will die but they still didn't change their stance.

I hope my family can not only get answers for ourselves but also set a standard and precedence that the ambulance trust must follow in future.my dad's situation was unusual in that his mobility became a major issue in a short time span and he was living in an upstairs flat but there must be others in similar circumstances.

Spoonbill

Sorry to hear of your loss, especially under those circumstances, groot.

Couple of leads you may find useful:

• DLS are a high-profile medico-legal charity, and provide legal aid and support for community care cases which I think would apply here. While your NWNF solicitor sounds an encouraging option, you might want to consider whether DLS would be better placed under the circumstances (may or may not, depending on practicalities).

• Inquest are an advocacy charity specialising in state-related deaths - you may particularly find useful their family hub section, and an FAQ which includes information on NHS Trust investigations and could yield more informed opinion on where accountability might lie. Through the hub, you may find help plotting a course, finding community support (which may help carry you through), and involving media (should that be appropriate for pushing reform).

Good luck.

betty888

Very sorry about your father.

I am in similar situation, my husband’s mobility went downhill in a few months time and he is not able to manage the stairs from first floor flat. The stairs are very narrow with sharp turns, the hospital transport team came to do an assessment, I really hope they can take him for his heart scan to see if he has heart failure.

groot432 said:

My father died last month aged 60.he had rheumatoid athritis since he was 21.

 In January 2020 he had an infection in a replacement knee and elbow.this resulted in him needing an operation to replace them to remove the infection. My father had surgeons ready to do it as early as June 2020. However he had to attend a number of appointments at the hospital to meet the surgeons,discuss the procedure and have tests done.

He lived in an upstairs flat with 1 flight of stairs around 12 steps. The infection left him with almost no mobility. This meant to get to his appointments he needed an ambulance which he met the criteria for transport.

They took him to 2 appointments without issue but refused any further transport citing health and safety concerns with the stairs.My father had no way of attending without them.we argued with them for 2 years with slow responses and eventually my dad had a Pulmonary embolism,collapsed lung and suspected heart failure.this was down to him having no mobility and little movement all day every day. They took him to hospital for that as it was an emergency.he survived but it all took a toll on his body.

He came out of hospital in March 2022 and we managed to secure a bungalow for him which meant he could go to future appointments.unfortunately by then he was too ill for the operation and had to try and get his levels up to do with nutrition and others.

the infection was untreated,he could barely eat so was malnourished and he had a slow decline for a year until he died last month.he didn't die from a heart attack or sudden event,he died because his body just couldn't fight everything anymore. There were many other areas of concern with my father's care by the NHS but the main issue was the ambulance service.

I have a few questions which maybe someone here can answer.

Can the ambulance service refuse to take a patient to appointments when they literally have no other way of attending?

They cited health and safety but they had equipment to take my father down the stairs.they said it was slippy but there was never any issue.surely they should have the capability to transport severely disabled people down 1 flight of stairs?

There was no attempt by anyone to offer adjustments or a solution, he was simply left to die, should they have offered adjustments and at least tried?

Was this discrimination because of a disability as an able bodied person in the same accommodation would have had treatment?

There is no doubt that he would be alive today if he had the operation any time prior to 2022 and the infection would have been gone.

Thank you for reading this long post.i have already written to the NHS about all the issues and we intend on pursuing a negligence claim but it will take a while and in the meantime I m hoping someone will have some perspective on the ambulance side of things.

woodbine

Sorry about your loss but wasn't totally surprised at the fine paragraph of the OP. Perhaps if the NHS wasn't so busy paying out claims we would have more ambulances and better hospitals.

Steve_in_The_City

I know this post is a bit old, but.....

I was refused hospital transport. This has never happened before. I regularly have to go to hospitals, clinics, health centres etc. I am making a formal complaint.

Steve_in_The_City

Everything is sorted. I got a phone call today in which I was told I would get transport so all is well.

Hannah_Alumni

@Steve_in_The_City I'm so sorry that happened. I am glad it is all sorted  

groot432

I thought I'd give an update as I've seen people leaving comments on this post.

The investigation is still ongoing and will not be complete this year. I won't say specifics but the ambulance trust and health board have already admitted several mistakes and not following procedure. This includes a very serious mistake on the day my father passed away.

They have admitted not to addressing complaints by us properly when they were made over the 3 years which could have changed things.


They have put 2 members of their investigating team full time on the case and they have said they have never had such a complex case to look at which is why it's taking a long time.

The case has been referred to the Welsh government for oversight.

They are talking about real change for patient transport services and implementing a lot of good ideas, hopefully this will help people going forward.

I will likely make a separate post when the investigation is completed where I can go into specifics.

Hannah_Alumni

@groot432 I'm glad to read that they are taking this seriously and that you are on your way to getting more answers. Hope you can update us soon.

Hope you have support around you! Please know we are here