'Worst in England': Shocking ambulance handover delays brought into focus after death of beloved Shropshire mum who waited two hours and 20 minutes when critically ill
The death of a beloved mum who waited two hours and 20 minutes for paramedics to arrive has brought shocking ambulance waiting times in Shropshire into sharp focus.
The daughter of “kind and fun” childcare worker Nichola Sach-Brian said her family has “concerns about the state of the NHS” including staff shortages and underfunding after her death at Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford.
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Seven ambulances were stuck in queues outside the hospital shortly before the 58-year-old was collected as she struggled with breathlessness, confusion and severe pain in her neck and abdomen.
Five ambulances were lined up outside the hospital trying to offload patients shortly before her husband called 999.
He told the call handler that Mrs Sach-Brian, who was born in Windsor, Berkshire but lived in Wellington, was struggling to breathe and was “the worst I’ve seen her in 30 years”.
Meanwhile, West Midlands Ambulance Service call navigators were trying to juggle more than 230 cases at once, with only one ambulance available at the time of the call. Out of those cases, 88 were considered in the same category of seriousness as Mrs Sach-Brian's.
On the day that Mrs Sach-Brian was taken to hospital, 89.5 hours of time were wasted due to ambulances being stuck in queues at both PRH and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH).
And it has been revealed that between April 1 last year and the end of January this year, 334,000 hours of time were lost to queuing across the whole WMAS region, which includes Shropshire, the West Midlands, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.
An inquest at Shropshire Coroner’s Court at Guildhall, Shrewsbury, was told that Mrs Sach-Brian’s husband called 999 at 6.49pm on September 19, explaining her symptoms.
Her case was placed in category 3 by the call handler - the urgent but not life-threatening category.
According to current targets, ambulances should be aiming to get to such cases within one hour, or at worst reaching 90 per cent of patients within two hours.
More information came to light after an assessment at 7.54pm and her case was upgraded to category 2 - for serious conditions like burns, strokes, heart attacks and sepsis.
The target for such a case is to get an ambulance to a patient within 18 minutes, or at worst within 40 minutes in 90 per cent of cases.
An ambulance didn’t reach Mrs Sach-Brian until 9.09pm - an hour and 15 minutes after her status was upgraded and two hours and 20 minutes after her husband first phoned 999.
When the ambulance arrived at hospital, Mrs Sach-Brian was rushed straight into A&E and then into intensive care. Sadly, she died the following morning at 7.35am.
A pathologist gave her cause of death as multiple organ failure, contributed to by streptococcus pneumoniae and septicemia. She had multiple health issues including Type 2 diabetes and hyposplenism, which is reduced or absent function of the spleen, an important part of the body’s immune system.
