Elderly woman dies after waiting nearly seven hours for ambulance in Milton Keynes

    Senior coroner for Milton Keynes has raised concerns that the city has 'insufficient ambulance service resources', following the death of an 84-year-old woman.

    Issues have been raised by the senior coroner for Milton Keynes over ambulance service resources in the city following the death of an 84-year-old woman.

    Rita Taylor, 84, had a fall in her Beanhill home in September and an ambulance was first called at 10.28 am.

    Senior coroner Tom Osbourne has raised concerns that there are 'insufficient ambulance service resources to meet the needs of the City of Milton Keynes', in his Prevention of Future Deaths Report addressed to the Department of Health and Social Care.

    The report highlights that Mrs Taylor waited seven hours for an ambulance after being told that there were 'no resources to send'.

    During the first call, Mrs Taylor was named a category 3 incident.

    Ambulance services use four categories to set the urgency of each incident, with category 1 being 'immediate' - people with life-threatening injuries and illnesses and category 4 being 'less urgent'.

    Over the course of the seven hour wait, two 999 calls were made in the first two hours, according to the report. It was reported Mrs Taylor was 'in and out of consciousness'.

    The coroner said in his report that an audit decided she should have been re-categorised as level one or two.

    The report states that it then took a further two hours before her category was changed, with an ambulance arriving at 17:15.

    Mrs Taylor died that day at Milton Keynes University Hospital of a brain bleed.

    "I am concerned that there are insufficient ambulance service resources to meet the needs of the City of Milton Keynes," Mr Osbourne said in his report to Will Quince M.P. Minister of state for Health.

    "In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action."

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