A PENSIONER has hit out at South Western Ambulance Service after they did not send an ambulance when she fell ill with what was diagnosed as a bleed on the brain.

Susanne Parkin, 73, called the emergency services after waking up during the night with a ‘terrible headache’ and later asked husband, Michael, to continue the call due to the amount of questions she was being asked.

As a result of the answers Mrs Parkin and husband, Michael, gave, was they were told that the service would not be sending an ambulance.

Mrs Parkin says that this shows that there is something ‘very seriously wrong’ with South Western Ambulance Service.

Susanne, a Corfe Mullen Parish Councillor, said: “They asked me a lot of questions and I said ‘Please, just send someone now. I know that I need some help.’ “However, they said that an ambulance wasn’t necessary and told us to ring the doctor in the morning.

“Letters they have sent us since say that offered us a doctor and we refused, but we didn’t, we wanted an ambulance.

“They’ve also said that they are going to be re-training their call centre operators and staff and it listed the points where they failed.

“But it’s not the operator’s fault, it’s the people that put in the computer system in the first place.”

Following the incident in May, Susanne’s husband took his wife to hospital, where it was later discovered she had a bleed on the brain and would need to undergo an operation.

“It was terribly traumatic for my family, I was out of consciousness for four days.

“I didn’t realise that the call was all done through a computer-operated system, which is terrible.

“For example, if 10 people had a cold and described their symptoms, they would all come out with different answers.

“The same goes for this computer system that if you don’t use the right words, they won’t send an ambulance.”

Trust set to take action

A SPOKESPERSON for South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The Trust acknowledges that some aspects of the call could have been handled better and actions have been taken to address this.

“However, the outcome of assessing Mrs Parkin’s symptoms was that an Out-of-Hours GP should call within two hours.

“This was the correct and appropriate response to the call, which Mr and Mrs Parkin chose not to accept.

“The triage system (NHS Pathways) used by our 999 call-handlers is a robust, national system, designed by clinicians to determine the most appropriate care.”

“If a patient is not thought to be suffering a life-threatening emergency, they can be re-triaged by a clinician such as a paramedic, emergency care practitioner, nurse or sometimes a doctor in the control room to ensure that patient receives the right level of care for their condition.

“Callers are always advised to call back on 999 if the condition deteriorates.”