The “catalogue of blunders” by East Midlands Ambulance Service (Journal, April 5) may shock many readers.
EMAS, with its £150 million budget, delivered the worst response times of all 12 ambulance services in the country (eg a 10-hour delay to respond to an 89-year-old man after a fall at home). They may plead mitigation that East Midlands has a more sparsely distributed population than some other regions. However, a population density can have nothing to do with breaking a patient’s neck in a fall from a stretcher, or failing to keep classified drugs secure.
Readers regularly compliment both hospital and ambulance staff for the excellent service they have experienced; however, there were 53 “incidents” in a single year.
Without knowing the details, including how an “incident” is defined, it is difficult to comment on the six which were “downgraded”. When is an incident not an incident? And six other incidents were defined as “near misses” – so that’s all right, then – is it?
If a “radical shake-up” can transform performance, why has no one shaken (not stirred) EMAS before now?
Brian Bruce
Bourne Road, Colsterworth