Episode details

Radio Suffolk,3 mins
Woodbridge "No parent should bury their son"
Available for over a year
An ambulance service has changed the way it deals with calls after the a Suffolk man, who had a stroke, died waiting for a response in Northamptonshire. Martin Hunt from Woodbridge was working as a lorry driver when it veered into a grass verge in Watford, Northants, last October. The case wasn’t referred to the coroner despite him waiting 2 hours and twenty minutes. The call had a target response time of 18 minutes. East Midlands ambulance service said in a report, there were no ambulances to send because of demand and vehicles queued outside hospitals. Call handlers now tell people how long the delay is, in case they can get the patient to hospital themselves. East Midlands Ambulance service are yet to reply to our request for a comment. The department for health told us: Compared to the same time last year, ambulance handover delays have fallen by 28%, They add they’re working to get 800 new ambulances on the road across England. Northampton General told us: We would like to offer our sincere condolences to Martin’s family and apologise for the delays he experienced. We have introduced improvements to ambulance handover processes which, both improve patient care and support an ambulance to leave for higher priority calls in a more timely manner. The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Nikki Fox has been speaking to Mr Hunt’s wife, Julia, and his daughter, Bethany.
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