West Midlands Ambulance: Man died waiting for ambulance

Henry Willems died after he waited two hours longer than expected for emergency services to get to his home in Malvern.

On that day 50% of ambulances were experiencing significant delays in handing their patients over to staff at hospital emergency departments across the West Midlands.

The 79-year-old was classed as a Category Two case by West Midlands Ambulance Service when he became unwell with gastritis on October 12, 2023.

READ MORE: Mother's anguish after 'lovable' daughter died following hospital's neglect

On average, ambulance crews aim to get to Category Two cases within 18 minutes - but Mr Willems was left waiting for two hours and eighteen minutes.

The coroner found that despite Mr Willems dying of natural causes, the lack of timely ambulance response contributed to his death and he would have survived if it arrived within 18 minutes.

What is a Category Two ambulance response?

Ambulance crews break up their response times into four categories to help them distinguish the urgency of a call. 

It ranges from Category One, which is a life-threatening case, to Category Four, which is non-urgent.

According to the Nuffield Trust, Category Two response times are classed as "an emergency or a potentially serious condition that may require rapid assessment, urgent on-scene intervention and/or urgent transport".

West Midlands Ambulance Service apologised to Mr Willems' family for the delayed response.

Unfortunately, it said many patients wait much longer for their care due to delays in hospital handovers.

On the day of Mr Willems' death, over 50% of ambulances were experiencing significant delays in handing their patients over to staff at hospital emergency departments across the region.

Earlier this year, WMAS sent us these figures, which show how response times are affected by delays at hospitals (Image: West Midlands Ambulance Service) Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was operating an Emergency and Urgent Surge Level 4 - the highest level to be applied - so some ambulances were waiting nearly seven hours.

READ MORE: Woman died after she was left lying for hours in a Worcester flowerbed

There were also 200 outstanding incidents across the West Midlands region.

The Prevention of Future Death Report found this had contributed to the delay in West Midlands Ambulance service getting to Mr Willems on time to save him.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “If ambulances are delayed handing their patient over at the hospital, they are simply unable to respond to the next call.

“There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly."

Stephen Collman, Managing Director of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said improving ambulance handover times is a priority and getting ambulances back on the road is important.

He added: "We are working closely with colleagues in WMAS and the rest of our local health system to improve the care we provide for patients."

Some of this includes expanding its same-day emergency care, which he hopes will free up more beds and help improve ambulance handovers.

Please note: A previous version of this story said there were 200 outstanding cases in Worcester. We have been asked to point out this was across the West Midlands region.