Ambulance service apologises for locking elderly patient in vehicle
November 2, 2009
An ambulance driver has been suspended pending an investigation into how a sixty-five-year-old kidney patient was left locked in an ambulance for nearly six hours. The Manchester patient was left inside the vehicle which was parked at Sharston ambulance station between 7.15pm and 1am last Tuesday night. The driver is thought to have forgotten that the patient was still in his ambulance when he clocked off duty for the night. The patient’s whereabouts were only discovered after staff at the care home he resides at alerted police to the fact that he was missing after a regular visit to hospital for a check up.
Chief executive of the North West Ambulance Service, Darren Hurrell said that officials have personally apologized for the incident to both the patient and his family and that a full and thorough investigation is underway to determine how such a thing could have happened and to make sure that it never happens in the future. A source from the ambulance service has said that the suspended driver was usually very conscientious and that the incident was out of character. Hurrell went on to say that the patient and his family do not want any publicity and that they had been very forgiving over the whole matter.
It is probable that the driver quite simply forgot that he had another patient on board when he finished his shift after dropping off three other patients. Although the patient is not said to have suffered any complications because of his ordeal he was taken to hospital for an all clear.
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