Ambulance service admits litany of failures that put patients at risk

SCOTTISH ambulance chiefs have revealed that eight serious incidents were recorded over the past four years, including a patient falling from a vehicle, crews on breaks not attending emergencies and limited crews sent to fatal fires.

The Scottish Ambulance Service admitted sending only four out of the seven staff on call to a house fire in Inverness in which a father and his young son were killed, despite rating the fire as "serious" and there being an unknown number of children trapped inside.

Geraldine Stocks and her older son Andrew, seven, escaped their burning home but her husband Colin, 45, and son Stuart, three, died in the fire in April 2008.

Other incidents, revealed yesterday by the Scottish Ambulance Service yesterday under Freedom of Information laws include the case of ambulance driver Owen McLaughlan, who refused to respond to a 999 call while he was on a tea break as Mandy Mathieson, 33, suffered a fatal heart attack just 800 yards from his base in Tomintoul, Moray, in October last year.

In June 2010, a patient managed to get out of a moving ambulance in Dunoon, with the crew member only noticing once a "shaft of light" came through the hatch. She then had to be transferred to the casualty department.

Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scottish Patients Association, said: "Some of these incidents are ludicrous. You can't predict emergencies, but you can always look at patterns and if there's an emergency, someone should always be out there. Everyone deserves a break, but they must have spare staff to cover for them."

She added: "All in all, these incidents are staggering and it's clear the Scottish Ambulance Service hasn't learnt their lesson."

Conservative health spokesman Murdo Fraser MSP said ambulance staff should take action to ensure similar incidents did not happen again.

He said: "The staff at the Scottish Ambulance Service are valued public servants, who I'm sure take patient safety very seriously.

"However, it seems a matter of great public concern that a range of incidents have been reported where due concern is not shown by a small minority.

"The Scottish Ambulance Service must do everything they can to ensure that the interests of patients are the overriding interests of all that they do and try to eliminate instances where patients are put at risk due to staff negligence."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said every patient was "treated as a priority". She continued: "Patient safety is paramount and, in line with the rest of the NHS, ambulance crews are encouraged to report every serious incident to ensure that it can be investigated thoroughly."This means that any actions required to minimise risk in the future can be identified and put in place quickly.

"We look after over two million patients every year and not every adverse incident results in harm to a patient, but each one is treated as a priority under our patient safety programme."