Dad's death: 999 probe; PROBE AFTER DAD DIES: 999 pair in deadly detour now face action.

Byline: MARIE LEVY

A DAD-OF FOUR died after a paramedic diverted an ambulance during a 999 call because his shift had ended.

The paramedic and the ambulance technician who was in the vehicle with him were suspended following the incident.

Stroke victim Ali Asghar, 69 of Chalk Walk, Stockton, died soon after arriving at Accident and Emergency.

The paramedic complained to a colleague that he was 15 minutes past the end of his duty and wanted to clock off.

The 999 staff involved, aged 53 and 54, could face a charge of gross misconduct which would lead to dismissal from employment. Mr Asghar deteriorated during the journey and died of a suspected heart attack soon after arriving at A&E on May 18. Mark Cotton, head of communications at the North East Ambulance Service said: "It didn't really matter how long that delay was, we have a situation here where there was an avoidable delay in transporting a patient to the hospital.

"This was immediately reported to us by another member of staff and as soon as we were notified we acted to suspend both the paramedic and ambulance technician from duty. "We appointed a senior officer to c arry out a full investigation of this incident and we also appointed a family liaison officer to get in touch with the family of the patient, give them our condolences and keep them updated throughout on the development of the case. "This has come out of the blue for us in this trust, it is not inline with any of the trust policy or procedures that anything like that should be happening . "We expect our staff, if they have the care of a patient under their responsibility at the time when their shift is due to finish, that that patient is looked after first and foremost and is our number one priority.

"In this particular case it seems that the paramedic acted on his own unilaterally in taking the decision to end his shift without informing or seeking approval or permission for his actions while a patient was in his care. "That falls way short of the high standard of care that we expect our staff to carry out for our patients and obviously we take that action extremely seriously.

"If there's one message that we want to get out it is to reassure your readers that they can still expect the highest level of standard of care from their ambulance service were they to call for an ambulance, today or tomorrow or any point in the future." The crew left for the hospital at 4.13pm for a 3.3 mile (5.3km) journey from the patient's house to the hospital which should have taken less than 10 minutes .

The vehicle went via the ambulance station and arrived at the hospital at 4.27pm after completing a journey of 3.8 miles. The investigation was concluded on Friday and a disciplinary panel will now be set up in 14 days time inline with employment legislation.In this particular case it seems that the paramedic acted on his own, unilaterally in taking the decision to end his shift without informing or seeking approval or permission for his actions while a patient was in his care - Mark Cotton head of communications for North East Ambulance Service

CAPTION(S):

JOURNEY: Red line shows the direct route to the hospital, purple line shows the detour made by the ambulance crew