999 crew went 51 miles adrift

6:30am Tuesday 4th March 2008

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A teenage girl lay dying in a park while an ambulance was mistakenly sent to the wrong town 51 miles away, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

The 14-year-old collapsed and then later stopped breathing after binge drinking vodka in the skate park in Mably Way, Grove near Wantage.

A passer-by dialled 999 for an ambulance but the control centre dispatched a crew two counties away to a skate park in Grove, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.

It took nearly an hour before paramedics arrived at the right place - after the girl had stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated by Police Community Support Officer Sue Harris.

Oxfordshire merged with Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Berkshire to form South Central Ambulance Service in July 2006, and all calls are routed through Milton Keynes.

A spokesman for the South Central Ambulance Service said an investigation had been launched.

She said its records had the incident as being in a skate park in Grove near the airfield in Leighton Buzzard, and that is why the case was passed to Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire ambulance.

But Frank Parnell, chairman of Grove Parish Council, said he could not believe the caller in Grove would have told the controllers in Milton Keynes it was in Bedfordshire - two counties away.

He said: "It is ridiculous these calls are being handled by people without local knowledge. It's important they at least know where places are.

"I can't believe anyone can mix the two up.

"They are very far apart and completely different. There is no way anyone could think they were in Leighton Buzzard."

Three quarters of an hour after the first call, PCSOs called for an ambulance after getting concerned about the girl.

Minutes later she stopped breathing and needed to be revived by PSCO Harris.

PCSO Harris said at the time: "We are trained to get on with what is put in front of you and then think about it afterwards."

Police logs showed the ambulance arrived one hour and eight minutes after the initial call. The ambulance service disputes the time of arrival, but not whether the girl had stopped breathing. It is investigating why police logs show different times.

Dr Peter Skolar, a former GP and chairman of Oxfordshire County Council's heath scrutiny committee, said: "We hear about the ambulance service response times but how many times, as in this case, have their ambulances been misrouted?"

Michelle Ullett, spokesman for South Central Ambulance Service, said: "Unfortunately on this occasion there was some confusion over the location of the incident.

"It is essential when members of the public require our assistance that we receive as much information as possible about the patient's location."