Man died in Cookstown after ambulance’s ‘significant delay’

AN INQUEST into the death of a Cookstown man more than two years ago has heard evidence about the severe pressures being felt by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.

Peter John Touhey, of Orritor Road, died at Union Street in the town on June 28, 2022.

Delivering her findings in the inquest, the Coroner concluded that he had died from a gastro-intestinal bleed caused by an ulcer.

However, she also found that when the emergency ambulance had arrived for Mr Touhey, he had been dead for around 15 minutes, and that there was a missed opportunity to diagnose and treat the deceased.

The Coroner’s Court sitting in Belfast, though, was told that, while there was a significant delay in the arrival of the ambulance, the deceased may have been successfully transported to hospital and his life saved.

“However, I am unable to make a finding on the balance of probabilities whether this death was preventable as the condition of the deceased at the time of the 999 calls cannot be ascertained with any degree of certainty,” she said.

The Coroner said that the 999 call was stated to be a Category two call rather than a category one which would have led to an earlier allocation of an ambulance to the deceased.

She said that on the night of Mr Touhey’s death there were major resources pressures being experienced by NIAS and delays in response times, but that the extreme resource pressures were now almost a daily occurrence.

But she described as ‘quite shocking’ that even a stroke or heart-attack would not be designated as category one calls if the patient was still breathing.

“I fully accept the evidence from NIAS that additional ambulance resources are required in order for NIAS to be able to meet the current and future demand for pre-hospital emergency care,” she added.

The Coroner’s Court had previously been told that for the 50-52 ambulances available in the north at any one time during the day, there would be at least as many calls being waited upon at any one time. At night the number of ambulances falls from 45-48.

The Coroner stated that evidence had been presented at the inquest about how the single most prevalent reason for the delay in ambulances was due to waiting at emergency departments.

On the day of the death of Mr Touhey, 447 hours were lost waiting for transfer of patients to emergency departments.