Ms A complained that her father waited over 3 hours for an ambulance to transfer him following a suspected stroke. The call was categorised as an Amber 1 (second highest priority). She said that the Trust’s investigation identified a potential error in the processing of the emergency call.
The Ombudsman found that whilst Ms A complaint was investigated in accordance with the complaint process Putting Things Right Regulations(PTR), the Trust had not considered the issue of harm (qualifying liability) as required by PTR.
The Trust agreed to do the following as an early resolution/settlement • apologise to Ms A for the shortcomings in its complaint handling process; as well as providing a PTR complaint response which addressed qualifying liability and in the interim, keep the family updated on progress.