Ambulance chief's wife dies after student sent as emergency first responder

04 March 2024 , 12:45

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Gill Steele died of a cardiac arrest (Image: UGC)

An ambulance service boss' wife has died after an unqualified student was sent as a 999 emergency first responder.

The student technician attended after Scottish Ambulance Service chairman Tom Steele's wife Gillian collapsed in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire. But she died of a suspected cardiac arrest without a fully trained paramedic present.

While the student had earlier been part of a crew with a qualified paramedic, they left for a meeting so the student was on her own to treat the emergency. A back-up crew was sent from Livingston to assist but Gillian, from Lanark, died on February 7. It is believed that the student is a VQ4 -technician, which means she can carry out the work of a qualified technician, but only under supervision of another technician or paramedic.

An ambulance insider said: "The woman needed a fully qualified paramedic but she didn't get one. The only resource available was a student. We cannot understand why the control room sent a VQ4 student on a paramedic 999 call to someone who had collapsed.

"Tom Steele is the chairman of SAS and the woman was his wife. There is a huge -investigation going on into this." The source added: "In the past few years the ambulance service has been propping up recruitment and organisation, saying they were doing their best. This shows they couldn't even do their best for the wife of their own chairman."

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Tom Steele is chairman of the Scottish Ambulance Service

Politicians last night demanded answers over student paramedics being used as first responders to 999 emergencies, reported the Daily Record. Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "I wish to offer my sincere -condolences to Mr Steele for the untimely loss of his wife. It just shows that staffing problems and delays in the ambulance service affect everybody and we need to do more to make sure the service is given adequate resources so they can attend in time."

Ambulance trade unions have also demanded answers to the issue. Derek Thomson, the Scottish Secretary on trade union Unite said: "Unite has repeatedly stated that there is a national emergency facing our health services. Successive years of underinvestment have led to transfer delays at hospitals and this in turn contributes to a shortage of ambulances able to attend emergency incidents.

"There is a domino effect across all our health services. The Scottish public fully understand that our NHS is beyond breaking point despite the extraordinary efforts of staff. Unite's hundreds of members in the Scottish Ambulance Service have been at the frontline of this emergency situation for years and they are telling us that they are fatigued due to being understaffed and working excessive hours.

"This intolerable situation leads to staff having to take time off work due to stress and burn-out, which puts more pressure on ambulance crews and the wider service." A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Our thoughts and condolences go out to Tom and his family for their loss, however, it would be inappropriate for us to offer comment on an individual case."

When asked about Gillian's case, a spokesperson from the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "We do not comment on individual cases." Tom Steele was unavailable for comment.

Vivienne Aitken