Joint Investigation Launched Over Ambulance Response Time To Caia Death

The Welsh Ambulance Service have launched an investigation with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to ‘learn lessons’ over the response to an incident on Deva Way in Caia where a young man lost his life.

Details of the emergency medical response released indicate that due to a shortage of local ambulances the ‘nearest available’ ambulances at the time were in Oswestry and Flint.

A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We would like to express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the man who lost his life.

“At the time of this call, all of our crews were already committed to patients who had dialled 999 prior to this incident, and this meant we were unable to respond to this call as quickly as we would have liked.

“We are working with our health board colleagues to understand what lessons can be learned from this incident.”

The timeline given to Wrexham.com states:

• 0037hrs The Ambulance Service first received the notification call of the incident.
• 0043hrs – Emergency ambulance dispatched responding ‘from Flint area’.
• 0043hrs – West Midlands confirmed assistance from Oswestry
• 0101hrs – West Midlands emergency ambulance arrives at Deva Way in Caia Park
• 0106hrs – Welsh Ambulance Service emergency ambulance arrives at Deva Way in Caia Park

Wrexham.com requested data on handover times at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital on the evening after one reader told us of queuing ambulances.

A spokesperson for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to Wrexham.com “As the Health Board will be undertaking a joint investigation with the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust into the circumstances surrounding this incident we are unable to comment until this has been completed, and we are in possession of the facts.”

In a separate incident on October 15th, four days after the incident in Caia Park,  a Wrexham.com twitter follower live tweeted the response to an attack on Talbot Road stating “Poor chap been mugged and beat up on Talbot road @wrexham 3 police cars and ambulance on its way.”

Further updates were given from the scene, saying: “Still no ambulance!!! None in Wrexham so coming from Deeside, was called an hour ago!” with the final response time being given by the observer as 1 hour 20 minutes.

The Daily Post reported on the incident the following day, saying “Health chiefs admitted it had been a very busy week and with delays handing over patients to the Wrexham Maelor Hospital.”