‘Taxi’ patients died

The Trust says none of the patients died as a result of staff attending in taxis but admits taxis were used because ambulances were unavailable.

Last month the Sentinel reported how cardiac staff had to use taxis to respond to urgent calls 15 times in the Western Trust area over the past 12 months because an A&E ambulance was not available.

Now the Sentinel can further reveal that a small number of these patients died although the Western Trust is adamant their deaths were not the result of clinicians arriving in a taxi rather than an ambulance.

The Trust revealed that of the 15 urgent heart patients to which cardiology crews were sent in taxis 12 were admitted to hospital, a small number suffered heart attacks and a small number died.

The details were revealed to the Sentinel in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

“I have been advised that a small number of these patients died, however these deaths were not as a result of the team arriving by taxi rather than by ambulance,” a spokesman revealed.

The FOI release revealed that four of the occurrences were in the Londonderry/Strabane/Limavady area whilst the other 11 were in the Fermanagh/Omagh area.

The Sentinel asked the Trust to outline the exact number of people to whom cardiac staff travelled in a taxi who suffered heart attacks or died.

Although this was queried by the Sentinel, the Trust claimed that revealing this information could potentially identify the patients in question.

“Again, given the small number of occasions where cardiology services are provided in these instances, we are unable to provide a further breakdown of these figures without potentially identifying individual patients,” the Trust spokesman said.

“The Trust would advise that Coronary Care teams in Western Trust hospitals infrequently engage taxis to get to patients with potential cardiac conditions where an ambulance may not be immediately available.

“This enables rapid transport of cardiology staff to the patient. The patient is then treated, stabilized and, if required, transported to hospital by ambulance. The patient is not transported to hospital by taxi in these instances,” the spokesman advised.

The Sentinel asked the Western Trust if it was happy for taxis rather than ambulances to be used to send cardiac staff to patients.

A spokesman said: “It is important patients get the expertise, equipment and any required drugs as soon as possible and use of the taxis, on the infrequent occasions as stated, has assisted this.

“In such instances a patient is treated, stabilized and, if required, transported to hospital by ambulance. The patient is not transported to hospital by taxi in these instances.

“As with colleagues in the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, the Trust’s cardiology staff are committed to delivering the highest levels of pre-hospital care to patients in such instances.”

The Sentinel asked the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) if it would not be better if more ambulances and ambulance staff were made available.

A NIAS spokesman said it seeks to respond to all 999 cardiac related calls, made directly to the service, as a Category A call (immediately life threatening) and will despatch the nearest available and appropriate response immediately.

He said: “NIAS paramedics are trained in the delivery of pre-hospital thrombolysis (clot busting drugs) which is the treatment most likely to be required for those patients suffering a heart attack.”

But he advised that on certain occasions cardiac nurses may be required to be present and that in the Western Trust taxis are sometimes used for transport.

“However there may be occasions when the presence of cardiac nurses may be required and local arrangements exist throughout the Western Trust for the provision of transport for these teams,” he stated.

“NIAS will continue to work with the Western Trust, reviewing arrangements that are in place within their area to seek to ensure that together we continue to deliver the highest levels of pre-hospital care to patients in need of our services.”

The NIAS spokesman said that the ambulance service has been facing ever-increasing demand whilst having to realise efficiency savings and that sometimes it was nor possible to meet that demand.

“As with all other parts of Health and Social Care, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service is required to meet demand within defined resources. Despite additional investment by DHSSPS, specifically in the Western area, there will be occasions where we cannot meet all of the demand. Fortunately this occurs extremely infrequently.

“Northern Ireland Ambulance Service remains committed to providing a first class service within existing available resources.

“In recent years NIAS has faced challenges in terms of an ongoing annual increase in demand for our services against the background of the need to realise efficiency savings.

“In this period NIAS has been getting to more patients and getting to them quicker than ever before thereby improving the chances of positive outcomes for those who have a real need of our services,” he stated.