The North East Ambulance Service has apologised to a patient who was dropped by medics when transferred home following a leg amputation.
The patient was returning home from a hospital stay when the NEAS scheduled care crew transporting him dropped him while trying to help him into his home. This resulted in his amputation wound reopening and caused significant distress - while according to the report into the case, the patient required a district nurse to visit eight times to re-dress his wound which became infected.
The two-person crew responsible for the incident are currently undergoing disciplinary procedures, while ambulance service bosses have raised concerns about the process hospitals use to book patient transport for those they are discharging. At a meeting of NEAS's board, execs said the case highlighted that often NEAS is not given enough information to assign the correct kind of crew for patients who may have complex needs.
