A coroner has ruled that a significant delay in ambulance response time materially contributed to the premature death of Lee Gannon, who died in February 2022 after experiencing breathing problems at his home in Belfast. Coroner Marie Dougan stated that the initial 999 call made by Gannon's family should have been classified as a Category 1, indicating a life-threatening condition, but it was not.
There were two further opportunities for ambulance operators to re-triage Gannon's case as his condition deteriorated, but these were missed. The coroner noted that it was only after a fourth 999 call that Gannon was re-triaged as Category 1. However, by the time paramedics arrived, it was too late for him to receive timely assessment and treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital for pneumonia and sepsis.
"I find that the incorrect categorisation of the initial 999 call and the subsequent failures to re-triage the deceased resulted in a substantial delay in ambulance attendance and transfer to hospital," Dougan said. "That delay deprived the deceased of timely and appropriate assessment and treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital for pneumonia and sepsis and materially contributed to his premature death."
Dougan highlighted that this was not the first inquest to reveal delays in ambulance response times and that prolonged patient handover delays at hospitals remain a persistent issue across Northern Ireland. "The evidence before me demonstrated the significant effect which prolonged hospital handover delays can have upon the availability of ambulance resources to respond to patient in the community," she added.
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) acknowledged fault throughout the inquest and expressed commitment to learning from the incident. Lee Gannon's mother, Anne, was devoted to her son, who was known as a "mummy's boy." It was a matter of great sadness, the coroner noted, that Anne Gannon had not survived to hear the findings of the inquest into her son's death.