Sheffield woman waited almost five hours for ambulance - inquest

A woman had to wait almost five hours for an ambulance to take her to a hospital due to "tied up" resources, an inquest has heard.

Sophie Hindmarsh, from Sheffield, died on 17 August 2022 after spending weeks in hospital.

Assistant coroner Hannah Berry said paramedics had been held up in queues outside hospitals and could not respond to 999 calls.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service said it was sorry for the delayed response.

In a prevention of future deaths report published after the inquest's conclusion in April, the coroner described how Ms Hindmarsh had complex needs and required full-time care.

She waited four hours and 46 minutes for an ambulance after paramedics were held up in queues outside hospital, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The report said Sophie's father had called 999 at 02:45 BST on 21 July 2022 because she was vomiting and her feeding tube was leaking.

The call was correctly categorised but an ambulance wasn't dispatched until 07:16, arriving 15 minutes later.

"Within that 24-hour period, 156 ambulance hours were lost to delays handing over patients to hospitals," the report added.

Ms Hindmarsh died at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield the following month.

During the inquest, Ms Berry said there was a "risk" of future deaths if action was not taken.

Her main concern was the time it took for the ambulance to arrive and that it was far longer than the 40-minute target.

She added: "There was a significant delay in offloading patients at hospitals which tied up ambulance resources on that day and meant they were unable to respond to emergency calls."

Her report was sent to the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, The West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust said: "First and foremost, our thoughts remain with Sophie Hindmarsh's family. We are very sorry that operational pressures and availability of resources delayed our response to her in July 2022."

The inquest concluded Ms Hindmarsh died of natural causes.

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