Questions concerning ambulance response times

Posted: February 11, 2015

Posted in: Medical Negligence 

Questions have been asked about the response times of ambulances, and ambulance treatment standards in general, at the inquest into the death of a six-year-old girl. Jasmine Lapsley, from Liverpool, died while on a family holiday at Morfa Nefyn, Gwynedd. It was believed that she choked on a grape, but had to wait sixteen minutes for an ambulance to arrive – double the national response time target.

Jasmine was treated by paramedics at the scene of the accident before being flown 20 miles to Bangor Hospital by an RAF helicopter. She later died in hospital. It was heard that the ambulance took double the 8-minute national response time to reach the scene. A statement from the Welsh Ambulance Service said: “We take incidents such as these very seriously and will be looking into the circumstances to ensure we have a proper understanding of exactly what happened.”

“recommendations will be made for the future”

A spokesperson from the service said that the call had been logged as serious and ‘potentially life-threatening’, but there just weren’t the resources to reach the scene in 8 minutes. They continued by saying that all available resources, two community first responders and two emergency ambulances, were allocated immediately.

Coroner Nicola Jones said that the inquest will be “lengthy and complex”, but she told Jasmine’s parents: “Perhaps recommendations will be made for the future, depending on the outcome.”

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