Driver error after 111 call

BY ESTHER TAUNTON

Driver error is to blame for a Tahora woman's agonising five-hour wait for an ambulance, the Taranaki District Health Board said yesterday.

About 9pm on Saturday, Robert Fletcher called an ambulance for his wife, Annie, who was suffering painful back spasms triggered by a fall a week before.

Mr Fletcher was told an ambulance would be sent from Hawera to arrive in 90 minutes but, after the driver overshot their property by 60 kilometres, that time blew out to five hours.

It is the second time in less than two years that emergency services have struggled to locate a patient on State Highway 43 east of Stratford. Motorcyclist Brett Collings died after emergency services took 90 minutes to find a crash on the same stretch of road in 2008.

Taranaki DHB hospital and specialist services general manager Joy Farley said yesterday the ambulance driver sent to the Fletchers' property had misread a map of the area.

"It appears he has looked up Ohura Rd on a map and didn't realise it went right through," she said.

"He was looking for an address 72 kilometres from Ohura."

The section of State Highway 43 known as Ohura Rd runs northeast from Douglas to Tatu, where it breaks.

A second Ohura Rd runs northeast from Ohura to Matiere, where the Fletchers' ambulance ended up, and on to Mangatupoto.

The driver had been given the Fletchers' Rural Address Property Identification (Rapid) number, which gives their distance from Stratford, but believed it was the distance from Ohura.

All Taranaki DHB ambulance drivers are trained in using both Rapid numbers and onboard GPS systems and it was not known why the driver had not been able to pinpoint the property with GPS.

"We are following up on why the GPS wasn't enough," Ms Farley said.

"Nobody is perfect and everybody makes mistakes but we have spoken to various people within the service about how we can learn from this."

A request from the Fletchers for a helicopter to be sent due to their remote location had been turned down as the situation was not seen as being an emergency, Ms Farley said.

"The original injury was in the past, there was a first responder present and her husband was also there."

Decisions about helicopter rescues are made based on all the information given, not solely location or terrain.

"If someone called us from the mountain with a sprained ankle, we probably wouldn't send the helicopter," Ms Farley said, "but if we get a call saying someone's had a fall, their injuries are unknown and they're elderly, we will more than likely send it."

Both the ambulance driver involved and the Taranaki DHB have apologised to the Fletchers for the delay in reaching their property.

"We are very sorry this has happened," Ms Farley said.

- © Fairfax NZ News