Source · Prevention of Future Deaths

Kenneth Heard

Ref: 2023-0473 Date: 23 Nov 2023 Coroner: Guy Davies Area: Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Responses identified: 1 / 1 View PDF

Ambulance response times are severely impacted by extensive and persistent handover delays at Treliske and Derriford hospitals, with patients still waiting over 12 hours in ambulances despite mitigating measures.

Date 23 Nov 2023

56-day deadline 18 Jan 2024 est.

Responses identified 1 of 1

Emergency services related deaths (2019 onwards)

Coroner's concerns

AI summary

View full coroner's concerns

(1) The ambulance delay in Kenneth’s case, on 10 to 11 July 2022, was due to the demand on the service and delays in the patient handover process at the two main hospitals servicing Cornwall: Treliske (Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust in Truro) and Derriford (University Hospitals Plymouth Trust).

(2) The target for hospital staff to take responsibility for the care of patients from ambulance crew is within 15 minutes of the ambulance arriving at an Emergency Department.

(3) On 10 July 2022 there were over 403 hours of ambulance time lost at Treliske Hospital with the average handover taking seven hours and 34 minutes per patient. At Derriford Hospital, there were over 201 hours lost, with the average handover taking three hours and 28 minutes.

(4) Evidence heard at Kenneth’s Inquest indicates that there is a strong relationship between the hours lost due to handover delays and the response times being delivered by SWAST. Data shows that as the time lost to handover delays has increased, the response times have increased at a similar rate. In Kenneth’s case this relationship between response and handover is clearly revealed. The ambulance response time to Kenneth was eight hours and 10 minutes. The concurrent average handover delays being experienced at Treliske was seven hours and 34 minutes per patient.

(5) The court heard evidence of mitigating measures having been introduced in late 2022 and early 2023 to seek to address and reduce the impact of response and handover delays.

(6) This included the provision of pressure sore equipment to paramedic crews. Evidence was heard from SWAST that since the introduction of these mitigating measures some patients have still spent over 12 hours in an ambulance awaiting admission to hospital. This is the reason for the provision of pressure sore equipment to ambulance crews.

(7) Notwithstanding these mitigating measures, concern arises from present circumstances, in relation to handover delays across the region covered by SWAST and specifically at the two hospitals most commonly used by patients from Cornwall, Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and Treliske Hospital in Truro.

(8) The most recent data available is for August 2023, in which month across the region covered by SWAST the hospitals suffering the longest Information Classification: PUBLIC ambulance delays were Treliske, Derriford and Gloucester. The data indicated that operational resource hours lost due to handover delays in excess of 15 minutes was as follows:

5,107 hours lost at Derriford Hospital, Average Handover Time per Incident (Hrs:Mins:Sec) 2:04:36

2,449 hours lost at Treliske Hospital, Average Handover Time per Incident (Hrs:Mins:Sec) 1:01:13

(9) Response times during June, July and August 2023 were heavily impacted by the handover delay pressures. The best response times were delivered on the weeks with the lowest hours lost to handover delays. The data for time lost due to handover delays at Derriford and RCHT in June, July and August 2023 are set out below.

Operational Resource Hours Lost to Handover Delays in Excess of 15 Minutes

Time Lost in June 2023 Time Lost in July 2023 Time Lost in August 2023 Derriford Hospital

4714:17 3436:41 5107:36 Treliske Hospital

2833:15 2386:23 2449:47

(10) By comparison the court was informed that before the pandemic the average number of hours lost due to handover delays was approximately 4,000 hours per month across the whole of the SWAST region. During 2022 the average number of hours lost due to handover delays was approximately 25,000 hours per month across the whole of SWAST. The worst month of last year was December 2022. The number of hours lost due to handover delays in that month across the whole of SWAST region, was approximately 35,000.

(11) The court heard evidence that there are future circumstances creating a concern of a risk to life, namely the seasonal nature of demands on SWAST. The winter months are likely to see an increase in demand for ambulance services and for hospital beds. December 2022 Information Classification: PUBLIC was the most demanding month of last year and featured the longest delays in response and handover. December 2023 is likely to be the most demanding month of this year.

(12) The root cause for ambulance delays was found to be the lack of social care provision in Cornwall, whether care packages or beds in care homes. It was acknowledged and accepted by NHS representatives at Inquest that Treliske and Derriford are unable to discharge otherwise medically fit patients due to the lack of social care provision. This means that wards are accommodating patients who would otherwise be discharged. The hospital wards being full beyond capacity, means that emergency departments are unable to move patients out of emergency beds into the wards. This means in turn that the emergency department is full and unable to receive patients from ambulances. This leads to the handover delays, and consequently response delays, documented in the data set out above.

(13) HM Senior Coroner for Cornwall, Mr Andrew Cox has previously issued an R28 PFD Report regarding ambulance delays, in November 2022, addressed to the Secretary of State for Health. That report raised the exact same concerns as those set out above. This included the fact that at the date of the Inquest there were the equivalent of five wards of patients in Treliske who were medically fit to be discharged but for whom either there was no available intermediate/social care bed or a required care package.

(14) Since that report this court has heard numerous cases involving ambulance delays in 2022, some of which have found the delays to be contributory to the cause of death.

(15) Shortly after Kenneth’s Inquest, I presided over the Inquest of 93 year-old Peggy Watters which raised identical concerns regarding ambulance delays on admission to Treliske emergency department. The Inquest was conducted and concluded on 9 November 2023. Peggy died on 11 March 2023 from complications following a fractured neck of femur sustained in a fall at her home address on 17 February 2023 against a background of frailty and multiple physical health conditions. The evidence revealed a 20-hour ambulance delay on 17 to 18 February 2023. This delay followed the first 999 call made by the family after Peggy’s fall in which she sustained her fracture. This included a response delay of 12 hours, 52 minutes, and a handover delay of 7 hours, 26 minutes. Although the court found the ambulance delay to be minimally contributory to Peggy’s death, the court did hear evidence of the significant pain and anxiety suffered by Peggy whilst waiting for the ambulance. The court also heard evidence of the concern regarding present and future circumstances leading to the risks of future deaths as set out above. Information Classification: PUBLIC

Responses

1 respondent

Department of Health and Social Care Central Government

1 May 2024 PDF

Action Taken

The Department acknowledges concerns about ambulance response times and handover delays. They highlight the 'Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services' which aims to improve A&E waiting times and reduce Category 2 ambulance response times, and point to improvements already made. (AI summary)

View full response

Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for your letter of 23 November 2023 to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, about the deaths of Kenneth Heard and Peggy Watters. I am replying as Minister with responsibility for urgent and emergency care. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding to this matter and I am thankful for the extension you have granted.

Firstly, I would like to say how deeply sorry I was to read the circumstances of Mr Heard and Ms Watters’ deaths, and I offer my sincere condolences to their families. 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) and handover delays across the region. You have appropriately shared your report and concerns with SWAST and Royal Cornwall Hospital. SWAST and Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust (RCHT), who are best placed to respond on the specific action they are continuing to take 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 urgent and emergency care system is facing. That is why we published our ‘Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services’ which aims to deliver sustained improvements in waiting times. Our ambitions for this year are to improve A&E waiting times to 78% of patients to be admitted, transferred, or discharged from A&E within four hours by March 2025, and to reduce Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes on average across this fiscal year. The plan is available at https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp- content/uploads/2023/01/B2034-delivery-plan-for-recovering-urgent-and-emergency-care- services.pdf

Your report highlights that SWAST were under high demand at the time of the incident. A primary aim of our delivery plan is to boost ambulance capacity. Ambulance services received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to expand capacity and improve response times, and we are maintaining this additional capacity in 2024/25. This is alongside the delivery of new ambulances and specialist mental health vehicles. With more ambulances on the road, patients will receive the treatment they need more swiftly.   

I recognise that ambulance trusts work within a health and care system and issues such as delayed patient handovers to hospitals can impact on capacity and response times. That is why a key part of the delivery plan is about improving patient flow and bed capacity within hospitals. We achieved our 2023/24 ambition of delivering 5,000 more staffed, permanent hospital beds this year compared to 2022-23 plans, backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, and we will maintain this capacity uplift in 2024/25. Further, we also achieved our target of scaling up virtual ward bed capacity to over 10,000 ahead of winter 2023/24, and there are now over 11,000 beds available nationally. We have also provided £1.6 billion of funding over two years to support the NHS and local authorities to ensure timely and effective discharge from hospital. These measures are helping improve patient flow through hospitals, reducing delays in patient handovers so ambulances can swiftly get back on the roads.   

We recognise there is variation in performance across the country. That is why the Delivery Plan also provides a new tiering performance and improvement approach to give targeted support to challenged systems. There is support in place at national and regional level to support Tiers 1 and 2 with a universal improvement support offer being made available for all systems which will help improve system performance across the whole patient pathway.

Both South Western Ambulance Service and NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly ICB are in Tier 1 of the urgent and emergency care recovery plan tiering support approach. This means that NHS England provides bespoke support to them to help improve performance and reduce variation.

Further, a new emergency care hospital for the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust will be delivered by 2030 as part of the New Hospital Programme. This will provide a new integrated emergency care hospital, bringing all urgent care into one emergency care hospital, with dedicated areas for children and frail patients.

At a national level, we have seen significant improvements in performance this year compared to last year. 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 in 2023-24 compared to the previous year, a 38% reduction, while average handover delays were over 13 minutes faster in March 2024 than October 2023 (information on ambulance handover times has been published since October 2023).

However, I recognise there is still more to do to reduce response times down further and back towards pre-pandemic levels – improving NHS services and reducing waiting times is a key priority of this Government.

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

Yours,

HELEN WHATELY

Report sections

Investigation and inquest

On 12 July 2022 I commenced an investigation into the death of 79-year-old Kenneth Heard. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 31 October 2023.

The medical cause of death was found as follows:

1a Cardiac Arrest 1b ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction II Hypertension, Hypercholesterolemia, Psoriasis

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

Kenneth HEARD died on 11 July 2022 at Royal Cornwall Hospital Truro from an untreated heart attack leading to cardiac arrest before surgical procedures could be commenced which would have significantly increased Kenneth’s prospect of survival. The heart attack was untreated due to an eight-hour delay in the arrival of the ambulance, it being more likely than not that Kenneth would have survived but for that delay.

My conclusion as to Kenneth’s death was as follows

Kenneth Heard died from a cardiac arrest following a heart attack which was untreated due to an ambulance delay.

Circumstances of the death

On 10 July 2022 Kenneth had a major heart attack, symptoms starting from 2pm that day. He had no relevant medical history excepting a report of chest pains three weeks before his death.

Kenneth’s wife, , made a 999 call at 16:55 hrs on 10th July 2022. The call was triaged as category 2 priority. The national target set by the Department of Health is to attend Category 2 incidents within 40 minutes on at least 90% of occasions, with an average response of 18 minutes.

The ambulance arrived the following day, 11 July 2022 at 01:05:59hrs, giving a response time of 8 hours, 10 minutes from the original 999 call.

Treliske hospital (Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust in Truro), were pre-warned about Kenneth’s condition and the surgical team were in theatre ready to perform an operation to insert a stent. However, Kenneth suffered a cardiac arrest on arrival at Treliske. The surgical team were summoned to assist with resuscitation. Medical teams attempted resuscitation for 47 minutes, but this was unsuccessful.

On the basis of evidence from the cardiologist, the court found that early treatment within 2 hours of a heart attack leads to significantly improved chances of survival. Surgery within 2 hours, leads to a 95 % survival rate. The court found that on a balance of probabilities it is more likely than not that Kenneth would have survived but for that ambulance delay.

CORONER’S CONCERNS

During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern. In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action Information Classification: PUBLIC is taken. In the circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.

The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows. –

(1) The ambulance delay in Kenneth’s case, on 10 to 11 July 2022, was due to the demand on the service and delays in the patient handover process at the two main hospitals servicing Cornwall: Treliske (Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust in Truro) and Derriford (University Hospitals Plymouth Trust).

(2) The target for hospital staff to take responsibility for the care of patients from ambulance crew is within 15 minutes of the ambulance arriving at an Emergency Department.

(3) On 10 July 2022 there were over 403 hours of ambulance time lost at Treliske Hospital with the average handover taking seven hours and 34 minutes per patient. At Derriford Hospital, there were over 201 hours lost, with the average handover taking three hours and 28 minutes.

(4) Evidence heard at Kenneth’s Inquest indicates that there is a strong relationship between the hours lost due to handover delays and the response times being delivered by SWAST. Data shows that as the time lost to handover delays has increased, the response times have increased at a similar rate. In Kenneth’s case this relationship between response and handover is clearly revealed. The ambulance response time to Kenneth was eight hours and 10 minutes. The concurrent average handover delays being experienced at Treliske was seven hours and 34 minutes per patient.

(5) The court heard evidence of mitigating measures having been introduced in late 2022 and early 2023 to seek to address and reduce the impact of response and handover delays.

(6) This included the provision of pressure sore equipment to paramedic crews. Evidence was heard from SWAST that since the introduction of these mitigating measures some patients have still spent over 12 hours in an ambulance awaiting admission to hospital. This is the reason for the provision of pressure sore equipment to ambulance crews.

(7) Notwithstanding these mitigating measures, concern arises from present circumstances, in relation to handover delays across the region covered by SWAST and specifically at the two hospitals most commonly used by patients from Cornwall, Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and Treliske Hospital in Truro.

(8) The most recent data available is for August 2023, in which month across the region covered by SWAST the hospitals suffering the longest Information Classification: PUBLIC ambulance delays were Treliske, Derriford and Gloucester. The data indicated that operational resource hours lost due to handover delays in excess of 15 minutes was as follows:

5,107 hours lost at Derriford Hospital, Average Handover Time per Incident (Hrs:Mins:Sec) 2:04:36

2,449 hours lost at Treliske Hospital, Average Handover Time per Incident (Hrs:Mins:Sec) 1:01:13

(9) Response times during June, July and August 2023 were heavily impacted by the handover delay pressures. The best response times were delivered on the weeks with the lowest hours lost to handover delays. The data for time lost due to handover delays at Derriford and RCHT in June, July and August 2023 are set out below.

Operational Resource Hours Lost to Handover Delays in Excess of 15 Minutes

Time Lost in June

Similar PFD reports

Shared signals

Related inquiry recommendations

Report details

Reference: 2023-0473
Date of report: 23 November 2023
Coroner: Guy Davies
Coroner area: Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

Responses identified

Responses identified 1 of 1

All listed responses identified

Organisations named in PFD reports are normally expected to respond within 56 days. Deadline: 18 Jan 2024 (estimated).

Sent to

Department of Health and Social Care

Source links

Judiciary.uk page → Report PDF →

Data: judiciary.uk under OGL.