Woman dies after lying in agony on freezing ground for two hours - next to GP clinic

A 76-year-old woman died after laying in agony on the cold ground of a car park for more than two hours, an heard. Pensioner Josephine Ellis had just finished her appointment at a mobile clinic next to the Hoveton and Wroxham Medical Centre near Norfolk on October 23 last year. She was walking back the car with her daughter when she suddenly tripped after losing her balance and was sent crashing to the freezing ground.

Her daughter quickly called 911 at around 2.20pm but was unable to move her mum, who was left in agony. According to the inquest, by 4pm she was still lying on the ground - and despite being near a GP surgery, there were no blankets offered to keep her warm.

The inquest heard how staff at the centre tried to reassure the pensioner, with some lending their coats to try prop her up. Eventually, she was taken by paramedics to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where an x-ray revealed she had suffered a nasty broken hip. Josephine, who had spent years as a fundraiser for the Royal British Legion and the Royal Navy Association, underwent surgery on October 25, but tragically died the following day.

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Chris Hewitson, a patient safety specialist officer at the East of England Ambulance Service Trust, explained to the inquest the different catergorisations of 999 calls in a statement. CAT 2 calls require an emergency response within 40 minutes, and normally have an average response time of around 18 minutes.

However, category three calls have a response time of two hours, which is normally for people who have fallen. Josephine was a CAT 3 call but was later upgraded to CAT 2 shortly after 3pm after an additional call.

At 3.23pm, a second 999 call was received which said the elderly woman's condition had deteriorated. It was revealed at the inquest instead of re-triaging, the call handler treated the call as an "estimated time of arrival call."

Mr Hewitson told the inquest the triage should have been undertaken as Josephine's condition worsened.

He said: "We would like to apologise for this omission and feedback had been provided to the call handler."

However, the category of the response would not have changed even with the re-triage, as Josephine was not unconscious, he added.

He added that the trust was under "significant pressure" at the time. Mr Hewitson admitted: "I appreciate this will offer very little comfort to Mrs Ellis' family."

Meanwhile, the trust said it had taken action since her death, including recruiting additional staff and introducing care co-ordination hubs.

Josephine's family also raised concerns about her care while in hospital. The inquest addressing those concerns will be reopened at a later date.