AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after technical difficulties in a busy ambulance control room forced staff to log calls by hand.

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) confirmed one person died during the computer outage on New Year's Day and has issued an apology to anyone who experienced delays.

Director of operations at London Ambulance Service, Paul Woodrow, said: "We are taking this incident very seriously and have now launched a full external investigation into the circumstances of what happened and any impact on our patients."

He also said they are "very sorry to anyone who may have experienced delays".

The service said the system is now stable and that they are carrying out on-going checks and monitoring while the investigation takes place.

During the incident it is understood staff were forced to record details of calls by pen and paper for nearly five hours on one of the busiest nights of the year.

Mr Woodrow said their control room staff are "fully trained and practised in using a manual back-up system", and continued to prioritise patients in the same way, using the same assessment process as usual.

He added: "It would not be right for us to predict the outcome of this investigation until it is complete but we will be open about the findings of the report following the investigation.

"As part of our investigation we have identified a patient who sadly died during the time of the computer issues where we would like to look more closely at whether this was potentially a contributory factor. We have launched a separate investigation to establish this.

"It is too early to say what the cause of this patient's death was but we will report on the findings when the investigation is complete.

"We would like to encourage anyone with any concerns to contact us. We will also be speaking to our own staff to listen to their experiences."

  • The service's Patient Experience department can be contacted by calling 020 3069 0362 or by emailing patient.experiences@londonambulance.nhs.uk