Worksop woman taken to hospital more than 15 miles away by ambulance after fall

Tracy O’Keefe, from Manton, was taken to hospital by ambulance after suffering severe concussion in a fall on Saturday, September 3, at about midnight.

She was later shocked to find she had been taken by East Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics to Chesterfield Royal Hospital, 16 miles away in Calow, near Chesterfield, instead of Worksop’s Bassetlaw Hospital, just about two miles, or less than a 10-minute drive away from her home.

Tracy claimed her family were told the ambulance had to go to Chesterfield, as the accident and emergency unit at Bassetlaw Hospital ‘turned them away’.

However, a spokesman for Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Bassetlaw Hospital, said: “The trust was not operating any diversion at the time.”

He said the decision on where is best for the patient to be taken to will have therefore have been handled by EMAS.

Tracy said: “We have an accident & emergency department on our doorstep.

“It shocked and scared me when I found out that I was in a hospital I didn’t know and in a town miles away from home.”

Craig Whyles, acting divisional director for Derbyshire at EMAS, said: “Following conversations with other healthcare professionals, a clinical decision was taken to transport Ms O’Keefe to Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

“We are speaking with Ms O’Keefe so we can investigate what happened.”