Woman died after three-hour wait

A CRITICALLY ill 84-year-old died after waiting three hours for an ambulance – prompting calls for a better service in Lincolnshire.

Rita May Benton died at Lincoln County Hospital after suffering a perforated colon, an infection and eventually a heart attack on February 21.

An inquest has heard how her family had to call 999 twice before an ambulance was eventually sent from Grimsby to her home in Coningsby.

Now, the coroner is writing to the Government and local heath bosses to demand a better ambulance service across the county.

The inquest into Mrs Benton's death was told how her husband first called 999 just before 6pm because she was crippled with stomach pain. The call was graded a low priority and transferred to NHS Direct.

The inquest heard the case was terminated at 6.53pm and no ambulance was sent, but the family were not told of this decision.

Mrs Benton's son-in-law, Martin Worley, made a second 999 call at 6.57pm as her condition worsened.

By then, no medics were available to meet the required 20-minute response time.

A telephone assessment by East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) at 7.53pm upgraded the response to immediate and the only available ambulance was finally sent from Grimsby at 8.08pm, arriving in Coningsby at 8.51pm, and leaving the house at 9.28pm.

Mrs Benton finally arrived at Lincoln County Hospital at 10.09pm where she, in the early hours, suffered a heart attack and could not be resuscitated.

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as peritonitis following ischaemic colitis with perforation – an infection from a perforated colon.

GP Amos Ramon told the inquest, sitting in Lincoln: "Every minute was precious. This lady needed to be in hospital."

Lincolnshire's assistant deputy coroner Paul Smith recorded a narrative verdict.

He said: "I'm concerned that as far as humanly possible the events of that evening are never repeated.

"It is difficult to resist criticism that there were clearly unacceptable delays in getting this lady to hospital.

"It is not possible to say, on the balance of probabilities, whether she would have survived had she been admitted to hospital earlier.

"I accept resources are finite but the situation that evening in my judgment was not acceptable."