An inquest has been adjourned into the death of Patrick Royle, a 31 year old accounts manager, who collapsed and died as he was taking part in a charity bike race on one of the hottest days in 2006. An ambulance took an hour to reach him when a call to the South Central ambulance emergency service was wrongly categorised as being a non-emergency.
Mr Royle was taking part in a bike ride to raise funds for the children's cancer charity Clic Sargent but was found staggering along a residential road in a delerious state on the outskirts of Oxford. A passer-by called for an ambulance as a passing police officer, nurse and doctor tried to revive him. However, the call handler for the ambulance service mistakenly did not register the call as serious, which would have meant an ambulance being dispatched in 19 minutes.
Tragically when a paramedic did arrive at the scene Mr Royle's condition had deterioated to such an extent that it was impossible to resuscitate him. A police officer who was at the scene said at the inquest that she believed that Mr Royle would have survived if he had reached hospital earlier, a mere five minute drive from the scene. A pathologist told the inquest that the probable cause of death was heatstroke.
An internal inquiry by South Central Ambulance Trust had since made changes to monitor call-outs and the call-handler who took the call is no longer working at the Trust.
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