FiReControl scenario? Grandmother died of blood clot ‘after sat nav sent ambulance to wrong village’
May 27, 2010 by admin
Filed under Campaigns, FiReControl - Regionalisation of Emergency Fire Controls, News
FiReControl is heavily dependent on new technologies and software yet to be created, established or tested. The theory of FiReControl is that fire appliances (fire engines) will be sent and guided using satelite navigation, within the region, including cross border/county. However, the theory is all very well but the reality may not be quite so good for the safety of the public or Firefighters.
Everyone knows the limitations of satelite navigation, but unfortunately in emergency situations such limitations will endanger lives.
As the reported incident shows below, the possibility of fire appliances being guided to incorrect addresses as a result of the limitations of the FiReControl project ethos could have fatal consequences. Firefighters and Fire Control staff know all too well the importance of local knowledge.
Unfortunately this is not the first time there have been incidents reported of ambulances being misdirected to incorrect addresses for either emergencies or patient transport with a reliance on using satelite navigation. It is unlikely to be the last.
For the South East region, the Regional Fire Control Centre will cover nine counties (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Oxfordshire), with a population of eight million people. Calls from other regions will also be taken by the South East Regional Control Centre (situated in Fareham), as the premise of overflow from other REgional Control Centres. Likewise, calls from the South East Region will be taken by other Region Control Centres around the country.
The FiReControl project is currently five years behind schedule and millions of pounds over budget.
‘A grandmother died after she was forced to wait 42 minutes for an ambulance which was taken to the wrong address by its sat-nav, her family has claimed.
Nora Jaques, 69, lost her fight for life just minutes before the paramedics arrived – after touring three neighbouring villages looking for the address.
Her son, Martin Benson, 49, claimed that the apparent blunder cost his mother her life.
‘Wherever the ambulance came from it doesn’t excuse taking 42 minutes to arrive. It was a 999 call,’ he said.
‘I spoke to the ambulance service the next day and they said it was the sat-nav system which had sent them to the wrong place.
‘Why don’t they use maps or turn out local paramedics? My mum was alive up to five minutes before the crew arrived.
‘All that time they lost was crucial. If they had got her to the hospital, I believe the doctors could have done something.
‘When the ambulance eventually arrived there was nothing they could do. She never made it to hospital.’
Mr Benson is considering legal action against the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, which has an eight-minute response time target for life-threatening calls.
Mrs Jaques, who leaves ten children and 17 grandchildren, fell ill at the home she shared with her other son, Leonard Jaques, in Staincross, Barnsley.
He found her collapsed in a toilet at their home at 11.20pm after he returned from a night out last Monday and dialled 999. He then fetched his sister, Janet Benson, who lives two doors away, to speak to the operator while he waited for the ambulance to arrive.’
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