Man dies as ambulance crews take a break

A paramedic arrived quickly by car after the 73-year-old collapsed on New Year's Eve afternoon — but was forced to wait 30 minutes for an ambulance to take the man to hospital.

Two crews were on a break at Edmonton station five minutes away and could not be disturbed, the Mail's sister paper, the Evening Standard has learned.

If one had been sent, the man would have been at hospital in minutes. Ambulance sources say it might not have saved his life but would have meant he died in hospital rather than on the floor of the betting shop where he suffered the heart attack.

Instead, an ambulance had to be sent from Enfield but by the time it arrived, the man had suffered a heart attack and died.

London Ambulance Service has launched a full investigation. New European rules mean ambulance staff must be given a "protected rest break" during their shift when they cannot be sent on 999 calls.

Witnesses in Edmonton Green said the lone paramedic desperately called for help on his mobile phone while trying to save the man.

An LAS spokesman said: "We dispatched a rapid-response car, which arrived at the shopping centre within eight minutes at 1.30pm, the member of staff being able to start treatment immediately. An ambulance was sent at 1.32pm after it became available from attending another incident and, according to our records, arrived at the shopping centre at 1.41pm and at the patient a few minutes later.

"The man stopped breathing shortly afterwards and efforts were made to resuscitate him both at the scene and on the way to North Middlesex Hospital, where he arrived at approximately 2.10pm.

"We can confirm that two crews were on a rest break at Edmonton Ambulance Station at the time of the 999 call.

"Our sympathies are with the patient's family and we are now looking into the full circumstances of what happened."

Eyewitness Sheldon Trevatt, 45, from Edmonton, said: "It is disgusting. The man worked all his life paying his national insurance. If that ambulance had been there earlier I think his life would have been saved."

A source said: "Rest breaks are a good thing but the way they are being implemented is putting patients' lives at risk."