FOLLOWING YEARS OF BEING HAMMERED FOR LENGTHY RESPONSE TIMES, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has found a new way to mistreat ambulance patients.  Tuesday night a North West Ambulance Service driver parked his van, locked up and went home for the night leaving an elderly man trapped inside.  He was finally found a little over five hours later.

The ambulance is a non-emergency van that carries infirm and disabled people to and from the hospital in Manchester for treatments.  The night in question, the driver had three patients to return to nursing homes, but forgot his third and last patient for the evening.

The nursng home started getting worried when he was two hours overdue and they called the hospital.  When they both determined that the man was truly missing, they reported it to the police.  When they went to the ambulance station to check the paper work and logs for the incident, they checked the ambulance itself as well, and it was then that the sick pensioner was discovered.

The driver has been suspended immediately and the chief executive of the North West Ambulance Service says that steps will be taken to see that this situation never happens again.

The Manchester Evening News has the details HERE.

Hat tip: Sabotank