Coroner demands action from ambulance bosses after woman dies due to paramedics being held up at hospital A&E

A coroner has demanded answers after a woman died because an emergency ambulance took 72 minutes to arrive due to a backlog at Tameside Hospital.

Lauren Costello, assistant coroner for South Manchester, has ordered an investigation after hearing 62-year-old Bobilya Mulonge died after collapsing at her home.

An ambulance was called but was delayed because ambulances were held up at the hospital due to long waiting times.

Ms Costello believes the hold-up contributed to Mrs Mulonge's death.

Mrs Mulonge - who was in poor health with heart problems - had suffered a previous stroke.

On November 24, 2022, an ambulance was called when she collapsed after suffering breathing problems.

By the time the delayed ambulance arrived, Mrs Mulonge had gone into cardiac arrest.

Her heart was re-started but she died at Tameside Hospital two days later. Her cause of death was given as heart failure due to disease, chronic kidney disease and type II diabetes.

The inquest into her death heard the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) was unable to meet its average response standards at the time of the 999 call due to 'the fact ambulances were unable to clear the region's hospitals due to the long waiting times there and high call volumes'.

The coroner said that since Mrs Mulonge's death a number of measures had been undertaken by NWAS to address emergency response times.

These include regular meetings with NHS trusts, managers deployed to struggling Accident and Emergency departments during periods of high demand, patients triaged to see if they can sit in a waiting room and a scheme to divert ambulances to other hospitals.

However, despite the measures, delays are still happening.

Now, in a prevention of future deaths report, the coroner has given ambulance bosses until July 3 to explain what they can do further to ease delays.

Ms Costello said: "Despite a number of measures being undertaken by the North West Ambulance Service, the delay in paramedics attending Category 2 calls has not been resolved to within target ranges.

"This is because resources available in NWAS cannot be fully utilised as a result of the delays in ambulance clearing Accident and Emergency departments.

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