Ambulance service blamed for death
Posted: September 19, 2014
Posted in: Medical Negligence NHS Claims Wrongful & Accidental Death
Ambulance “cutbacks” have been blamed for the death of 73-year-old grandmother Sonia Powell. Mrs Powell was forced to wait in an hour-long ambulance queue despite having suffered a suspected heart attack. She died in the ambulance queue outside Morriston Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
Mrs Powell’s family has blamed NHS cutbacks for her death. Her granddaughter, Kim Thompson, said that her grandmother had originally been admitted to Neath Port Talbot Hospital on Monday, but was being transferred to the cardiac unit at Morriston Hospital after having, what was believed to be, a heart attack and fluid in her lungs. She then had to wait in a nine-ambulance long queue due to there not being any free beds.
“We blame the cutbacks in the health service”
Ms Thompson said that there had been a clear “lack of communication” between the hospitals, which resulted in her grandmother’s death. Mrs Powell had been a grandmother to fourteen, and a great-grandmother to fourteen. Granddaughter Gemma Evans said: “We blame the cutbacks in the health service that has resulted in all of the ambulances having to wait.”
The Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU) said that they would carryout an investigation to determine what really happened in the run-up to Mrs Powell’s death.
ABMU offered its “sincere condolences” to the family in a recent statement.
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