Patricia Eyken

Coroner's concerns

AI summary

Systemic ambulance delays, caused by insufficient social care provision leading to delayed hospital discharges and subsequent emergency department overcrowding, critically impacted timely access to life-saving treatment.

View full coroner's concerns

1. Patricia’s death followed an ambulance delay, attributable to a systemic failure, which is likely to have contributed to Patricia’s death by preventing lifesaving treatment.

2. The systemic failure was found to be due to issues within healthcare services external to SWAST and notwithstanding increases in SWAST staff numbers and ambulance numbers.

3. Performance data published by SWAST and considered at Inquest, reveals that in 2023 the two hospitals (in the SWAST region) most impacted by ambulance delays are Royal Cornwall Hospital Truro (Treliske) & University Hospital Trust Plymouth (Derriford). These are the two hospitals servicing patients in Cornwall.

4. The court heard that at the time of the ambulance delay that contributed to Patricia’s death, SWAST had 130% resources available to meet anticipated Information Classification: PUBLIC demand. The increased resources were not able to overcome the systemic failures impacting SWAST. Between 02:00 and 03:00 hours on 13 September 2023, SWAST had 20 ambulances queuing at Treliske and Derriford.

5. The court considered the findings in the SWAST Patient Safety Incident Investigation Report & an associated investigation conducted by the Healthcare Services Safety Investigation Branch (HSSIB). These investigations found that…

‘…there is a direct link between patients waiting in the hospital for discharge to social care, and patients being cared for inside ambulances and Emergency Departments.’

6. In other words, the investigations found that there is a direct link between failings in social care provision and ambulance delays. The failings in social care provision were found to have a knock-on effect through healthcare services. It was found that at times hospitals were unable to transfer patients from hospital wards into the community when clinically indicated. This is because of the difficulty in securing sufficient domiciliary or residential care, as and when required. This leads to delayed discharges from hospital of patients deemed medically fit for discharge.

7. Furthermore, it was found that delayed discharge can lead to an increase in rehabilitation and care needs. This is an effect of delayed discharge leading to further impact upon hospital capacity.

8. It was found that the build-up of patients in wards (patients who are medically fit for discharge) means that the hospitals are, at times, unable to transfer patients from the emergency department to hospital wards when clinically indicated. This in turn leads to a build up of patients in emergency departments. This leads to handover delays between ambulance and hospital, namely ambulance crews being unable to transfer patients from ambulances into the emergency department. It was found that there is a strong correlation between ambulance handover delays and increasing ambulance response times. The report stated:

‘’It is as simple as the longer a patient is waiting in an ambulance outside a hospital, the longer the next patient will wait for an ambulance’’.

9. The investigation report states

‘…SWAST is experiencing by far the highest levels of handover delays seen in the Trust’s history. Handover delays result in multiple ambulance resources being held at hospitals for extended periods, thereby limiting the number of resources on the road to respond to waiting incidents. With fewer resources on the road, the response times to patients inevitably increases…

….The impact of the delays …is devastating¸ most significant¸ and most immediately evident to patients and their families and carers. Less evident is the secondary¸ detrimental effect these delays can bring to the service as a whole. This investigation found that delays are having an additional profound impact on staff morale and their mental wellbeing.’’

10. The court considered SWAST performance data for 2023 in connection with handover delays between ambulances and hospitals. There is a target for crews to handover the care of their patients within 15 minutes of arriving at an Emergency Department. Anything above this constitutes a delay which impacts on the availability of resources. The data revealed that in September 2023, handover delays (in excess of 15 minutes), cost the ambulance service 2,981 hours at Treliske. This is equivalent to 271 ambulance crew shifts. At Derriford in the same month, handover delays (in excess of 15 minutes) cost the ambulance service Information Classification: PUBLIC 6,359 hours, which is equivalent to 581 ambulance crew shifts.

11. The court considered data for 2023 showing total operational resource hours lost to handover delays in excess of 15 minutes. The total lost by SWAST at Treliske was 35,583 hours. At Derriford the total lost in 2023 was 53,080 hours.

12. The court noted that two reports have been issued by this court in November 2023 addressed to the Health Secretary raised the same concerns regarding ambulance delays. A response to those reports is still awaited.

Responses

1 respondent

Department of Health and Social Care Central Government

3 Jul 2024 PDF

Action Taken

The Department of Health and Social Care acknowledges the concerns and highlights the NHS's two-year delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, which includes a target to reduce Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes on average. They also mention the £200 million fund for local authorities to improve social care provision and strengthen admissions avoidance and discharge services, and note improvements in ambulance response times and handover delays nationally and in the SWAST region. (AI summary)

View full response

Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for your letter of 25 March to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regarding the death of Patricia Anne Van Der Eyken. I am replying as Minister with responsibility for urgent and emergency services.

Firstly, I would like to say how deeply sorry I was to read the circumstances of Ms Van Der Eyken’s death and I offer my sincere condolences to her family. It is vital that where Regulation 28 reports raise matters of concern these are looked at carefully so NHS care can be improved. I am grateful to you for bringing these matters to my attention.

Your report raised concerns about ambulance response times by South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWAST) in particular how this is impacted by handover delays and issues with discharging patients from hospital.

You have appropriately shared your report and concerns with SWAST and Royal Cornwall Hospital, who are best placed to respond on the specific action they are taking locally to reduce handover delays and improve ambulance response times.

As the Minister responsible for urgent and emergency care services, I recognise the significant pressure the NHS is facing and the impact of waiting times for patients. In January 2023, NHS England published a two year ‘Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services’ with a target for this year to reduce Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes on average. An update to this plan has now been published, to build on learnings from the first year and to continue to support systems to improve performance and reduce waiting times. The plan is available at:

recovering-urgent-and-emergency-care-progress-update-and-next-steps-May-2024.pdf

Your report highlights that SWAST and local hospitals were experiencing high demand and long handover delays. To support ambulance services, ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to expand capacity and improve response times. In addition, to improve patient flow and bed capacity within hospitals £1 billion of dedicated funding was provided to increase staffed core hospital beds by 5,000 compared to 2022/23 plans.

£1 billion was invested this year through the Discharge Fund in commissioning packages of care for people being discharged and improving discharge processes. A £40 million fund was also launched in September 2023 for local authorities in areas with the greatest challenges on urgent and emergency care. Local authorities used this funding for social care provision and strengthening admissions avoidance and discharge services over the past winter. The number of people discharged from hospital with packages of health and social care support has increased by 9% from the end of March 2023 to the end of March 2024.

SWAST, NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly ICB, and NHS Devon ICB are all in Tier 1 for support for their urgent and emergency care performance. This means that NHSE provides bespoke support to them to help improve performance and reduce variation with issues such as handover delays.

The report referenced University Hospital Trust Plymouth being one of the most impacted by ambulance delays in the SWAST region. Information on the creation of a new UEC Centre locally is available here: https://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/building-for-the-future/

Further, the local Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust received £3 million in 2023/24 as part of £250 million of capital funding provided nationally to help increase NHS urgent and emergency care capacity.

Since publication of the recovery plan in January 2023, there have been improvements in performance. Nationally in 2023/24, average Category 2 ambulance response times (including for serious conditions such as heart attacks and strokes) were over 13 minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of 27%. For SWAST, average Category 2 response times were over 26 minutes faster over the same time period, a 38% reduction. There have also been improvements in handover delays with SWAST handovers almost 23 minutes faster on average in May than October 2023 (information on ambulance handover times has been published since October 2023).

Thank you once again for bringing these concerns to my attention.

Yours,

HELEN WHATELY

Report sections

Investigation and inquest

On 29 September 2023 I commenced an investigation into the death of Patricia Anne Van Der Eyken. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 11 March 2024.

The medical cause of death was found to be as follows:

1a Malignant Acute Cardiac Arrhythmia

1b Coronary Artery and Systemic Atherosclerosis

The four questions - who, when, where and how – were answered as follows:

Patricia Anne VAN DER EYKEN died on 13 September 2023 at Rivercourt 5 East Bridge Chacewater Truro Cornwall from cardiac arrhythmia due to atherosclerosis following an ambulance delay which more likely than not contributed to Patricia’s death by preventing the administration of life saving treatment.

The conclusion of the Inquest was that Patricia died from an (untreated) heart attack following an ambulance delay which likely contributed to Patricia’s death by preventing the administration of life saving treatment. Information Classification: PUBLIC

Circumstances of the death

Patricia was 93 years old at the date of her death. Her medical history indicated that Patricia was fit and well for her age.

In the early hours of 13 September 2023 Patricia called 999 reporting symptoms of a heart attack, namely a sharp pain in her chest, and down her left arm.

Following the 999 call, South West Ambulance Service Trust (SWAST) determined a Category 2 response requirement. Category 2 identifies potentially serious conditions that may require rapid assessment, urgent on-scene intervention and/or urgent transport. The national response time as set by the Department of Health is to attend Category 2 incidents within an average response time of 18 minutes, and at least 90% of incidents within 40 minutes.

The ambulance arrived on scene after a delay of two hours and 37 minutes from the time of the ‘999’ call by Patricia. Patricia was found deceased by the ambulance crew.

The court heard evidence of the post-mortem which indicated that Patricia died following cardiac arrhythmia due to atherosclerosis. The court heard evidence from a medical examiner regarding Patricia’s death. The medical examiner stated that the original description of chest pain radiating to the left arm is strongly suggestive of myocardial ischaemia. The court found that there are a range of appropriate treatments for conditions such as those reported by Patricia. This included the availability of treatment to prevent the subsequent arrhythmia that led to Patricia’s death. The court found that if Patricia had been admitted to hospital promptly, that it is likely that appropriate treatment would have prevented Patricia’s death.

The court found that the categorisation of the call by ambulance services was appropriate.

The court found that the delay was not caused by any individual failing but was attributable to a systemic failure discussed in the concerns set out below.

Copies sent to

Royal Cornwall Hospital Truro ( ), University Hospital Trust Plymouth ( and Cornwall Council

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