New emergency directives to North East NHS departments from 2019 until 15 March 2020 in response to Covid-19
Dear Department of Health and Social Care,
We are seeking to understand the context in which our daughter died at home in Ponteland, Newcastle upon Tyne on 15th March 2020 after we had waited an hour from our first call for paramedics to be in attendance at the emergency.
1. Did the DHSC introduce new procedures for the NHS in Newcastle upon Tyne and
Northumberland between January 1st and March 15th 2020 in response to the Covid-19
pandemic? We are particularly concerned with the way any changes may have impacted
emergency ambulance call-outs and emergency hospital admissions.
2. If changes of procedure were introduced, what were they? In particular, did they:
1) Change the way emergency calls were graded for severity?
2) Restrict the number of ambulances available for emergency call-outs from the
public?
3) Change the type of treatments permitted at call-out locations?
4) Permit new implementation of ‘do not resuscitate’ orders?
5) Restrict access to hospitals because of Covid prioritisation?
3. What new rules were imposed regarding the wearing of PPE and the sterilisation of
ambulance equipment?
Yours faithfully,
Louise and Rob Dalton
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Dear Louise and Rob Dalton,
Please find attached the Department of Health and Social Care's response
to your recent FOI request (our ref: FOI-1523285).
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care
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