Scotland’s NHS helpline has apologised after an operator spent half an hour asking questions before dispatching an ambulance which was too late to save a dying Covid patient.
The victim, who has not been named, had tested positive for Covid-19 a week earlier and began deteriorating quickly.
Their partner called NHS 24 (which operates the 111 number in Scotland) and was kept on hold for 20 minutes before being connected.
The call handler then spent another half an hour asking questions and repeatedly asked to speak to the patient despite being told they were struggling to breathe or speak and was severely confused.
Paramedics were eventually sent out but by the time they arrived the patient had stopped breathing and could not be resuscitated.
Scotland’s public services watchdog found the call handler was correctly following the protocols given by NHS 24 but said these were ‘not fit for purpose’.
Instead, the ‘rigid following of the protocol led to a delay in obtaining medical attention’, it said.
Operators should patch calls directly to a medically trained clinician when breathlessness is the primary symptom, the watchdog added.
It ordered the body, which is run by NHS Scotland, to apologise, saying the wait was ‘unreasonable’.
In a statement, Dr Laura Ryan, NHS 24’s medical director, said: ‘NHS 24 has been in touch with the family and have offered our sincerest apologies for their loss.
‘We have fully reviewed and accepted the recommendations from the SPSO report and amended our processes in line with these recommendations.
‘All clinical advice which is provided by NHS 24 is continuously reviewed by clinical subject matter experts and processes are updated as required. All calls to NHS 24 also have input from a senior clinician.’
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