Ambulance service failed our father, say brothers

Iain and Simon Poole, who live 450 yards from Hornsea ambulance station, are demanding answers after “shocking” service from Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

Mr Poole wants to know why a first responder – volunteers trained to deal with emergency calls and be on scene in a few minutes – wasn’t called and why there was no help available locally in a town with a population of 9,000.

He said people shouldn’t be satisfied with “so so” service aiming to meet a target of answering 75 per cent of emergency calls within eight minutes, adding: “How many deaths is it going to take until this is fixed?”

He added: “As a family we have been truly shocked over the level of service we received from YAS. We have been speaking to local doctors and people in the community and just with this limited research we have done it would appear we are not the only family to receive such a shocking service.”

Their father – who had never been in hospital in his 67 years – was pronounced dead around 10 minutes after the ambulance crew finally arrived.

Mr Poole said: “The affect this has had on us has been very traumatic; no family member should be expected to have this level of involvement with attempting to save the life of a close family member for this length of time.”

YAS confirmed the family called 999 at 10.15pm last Wednesday. A rapid response vehicle and clinician – from Hull 20 miles away – were dispatched at 10.17, arriving at 10.30pm and the nearest available ambulance – also Hull – was dispatched at 10.17pm, arriving at 10.43pm. YAS said the Hornsea-based crew was already on another incident and no first responder had made themselves available.

In the HU18 postcode so far this year it took an average nine minutes and 19 seconds to reach the most serious patients. Head of emergency operations Mark Inman passed his condolences on to the family, and said they aimed to reach all patients as quickly as possible.