Ffion Jones, 12, died after waiting for an hour for an ambulance in her doctor’s surgery. An inquest was told that her GP had requested an emergency ambulance
A Labour-run ambulance service whose failures led to the death of a schoolgirl has been warned that others will die unless it improves.
Ffion Jones, 12, died after waiting for an hour for an ambulance in her doctor’s surgery.
An inquest was told that her GP had requested an emergency ambulance – which was supposed to arrive within eight minutes – to take her to hospital.
But paramedics from the Welsh Ambulance Service, run by the Labour-controlled Welsh government, took so long to arrive that they could not save her.
Now coroner David Regan has sent an official warning to the ambulance service after concluding that Ffion could have survived if it had arrived on time.
He said an improvement plan provided by the service at the inquest did not include any ‘consideration of the specific shortcomings’ that led to her death.
Recording a narrative conclusion, the coroner said a delay in escalating her case by an ambulance service call handler was ‘causative’ of her death. He added that ‘it is likely she would have survived’ if the ambulance had arrived within the eight-minute target in place for life-threatening emergencies
Mr Regan wrote: ‘There is a real risk of the recurrence of the circumstances leading to Ffion’s death. In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you and your organisation have the power to take such action.’
The coroner’s ‘Regulation 28’ report, which is intended to help prevent future deaths, has been sent to the Welsh Ambulance Service, which is required to respond.
Ffion, from Cardiff, collapsed at her GP’s surgery where she had been taken after severe vomiting on December 7, 2016.
By the time the ambulance arrived an hour after the doctor’s request, she had gone into cardiac arrest.
She was eventually taken to hospital but never regained consciousness and died the following day.
Coroner David Regan has sent an official warning to the ambulance service after concluding that Ffion could have survived if it had arrived on time. She is pictured second from left with her mother, father and sister
The inquest in September heard that Ffion was suffering from Addison’s disease, a rare condition where the adrenal glands in the kidneys stop functioning.
Recording a narrative conclusion, the coroner said a delay in escalating her case by an ambulance service call handler was ‘causative’ of her death.
He added that ‘it is likely she would have survived’ if the ambulance had arrived within the eight-minute target in place for life-threatening emergencies.
Nia Gowman, representing the Welsh Ambulance Service at the inquest, said it was accepted there was a ‘missed opportunity’ to escalate the GP’s call.
Sonia Thompson, operations manager at the service, told the hearing that changes had been made since Ffion’s death.
She said: ‘There is a 24-hour clinical on-call system. It came into effect on December 31 last year. Senior clinicians are available 24 hours a day to take calls at source.’
At the inquest in Pontypridd, Mr Regan said the medical cause of Ffion’s death was hypoxic brain injury, with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and Addisonian crisis.
Paramedics from the Welsh Ambulance Service, run by the Labour-controlled Welsh government, took so long to arrive that they could not save her. A file photo is used above
