Seriously ill heart op patient waits 11 hours for ambulance in Evenwood

AN Evenwood man who recently underwent open-heart surgery waited 11 hours for an ambulance which was called for by his concerned doctor.
David Dowson, 64, was showing worrying signs just a few weeks after being allowed home following the operations. His GP called an ambulance at 1pm on Thursday, January 19 – but 11 hours later it had still not arrived.
Mr Dowson’s wife, Pauline, and a neighbour resorted to getting seriously ill Mr Dowson, who was unable to walk, into their car so they could drive him to hospital themselves.
He is still in the care of doctors at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.
The North East Ambulance Service has admitted the delay was “unacceptable”.
Mrs Dowson said: “We were told it would be within the hour but we waited and waited and waited. I phoned the doctors back twice and they said for me to just hang on. He was just laid on the bed the whole time. What do you do? It was terrible. You could not do anything.”
The ordeal began on January 19 when Mr Dowson fell ill while at home with his wife.
The 64-year-old had undergone a triple heart bypass operation in November. Despite only expecting to be in hospital for a week, Mr Dowson was kept in for a month. He underwent another three operations before being allowed home on December 23.
But he was showing little signs of improvement in the days that followed and Mrs Dowson called out the doctor from Evenwood Medical Practice on January 19.
Mrs Dowson, 63, said: “He had not been eating or drinking and he was not well. He had fallen the night before too, so that morning I said ‘I am phoning for the doctor again’.”
Following a home visit by Mr Dowson’s doctor, who noted that his blood pressure was considerably low, an ambulance was called at 1pm but it failed to show.
Mrs Dowson said: “I was so upset and worried. It was frustrating. I couldn’t do anything to help him and I couldn’t get him up on my own.
“I rang them again at about 7pm and they said it had been upgraded.
“They said it would be there unless there was another emergency but it just went on and on. I know they have emergencies but it was getting to be an emergency after all that time.”
Fearing that the ambulance was not going to turn up at all after 11 hours, Mrs Dowson decided to take her husband to hospital herself at midnight.
With the help of her neighbour, Linda Morris, the pair eventually got Mr Dowson, into the car.
After ringing 111 to cancel the ambulance, Mrs Dowson then drove herself and Mr Dowson to James Cook University Hospital.
Upon arrival, staff met Mr and Mrs Dowson in the hospital car park with a wheelchair.
The family have made an official complaint to the Care Quality Commission about the ordeal. The information has been passed to the inspector for the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.
A North East Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to this patient and his family for the delay he experienced. Clearly this length of delay is unacceptable and not the level of service we would want any patient to receive.
“Unfortunately at times of high levels of demand, some patients who are not assessed as life threatening may experience a delay whilst we prioritise our resources to those patients who need them most.
“This is often compounded by delays we experience in handing over patients at our local hospitals.”