A stroke victim died after an ambulance driver who had finished his shift drove to his depot to clock off instead of going to hospital.

The driver complained to a colleague that he had worked 15 minutes’ overtime already and wanted someone else to take over.

The condition of the patient, Ali Asghar, 69, from Stockton on Tees, in Cleveland, deteriorated during the journey and he died of a suspected heart attack after arriving at North Tees Hospital.

The driver, a paramedic, and an advanced technician, who was in the back of the vehicle attending to Mr Asghar, have since been suspended as health chiefs investigate the incident.

Ambulance controllers received a 999 call at 3.52pm on May 18. The crew were alerted to a Category A life-threatening incident and arrived at Mr Asghar’s home, just three miles from the hospital, at 3.57pm.

After assessing his condition, they left for the hospital at 4.13pm. The journey should have taken around 10 minutes. Instead the driver went to his ambulance station, where he got out leaving the patient in the back with the technician until a new driver turned up. It is alleged that he failed to tell his replacement that there was a critically ill patient in the ambulance.

The vehicle finally arrived at the hospital at 4.27pm. Doctors administered Cardiopulmonary resuscitation straight away, but were unable to save him. The detour, which added half a mile to the journey, was reported by the new driver, who was just starting his shift.

A spokesman for the North East Ambulance Service said: “This incident was immediately reported to us by another member of staff. As soon as we were notified, we acted to suspend a paramedic and an advanced technician from duty.

“We appointed a senior officer to carry out a full investigation and have notified the North East Strategic Health Authority, Stockton-on-Tees Teaching Primary Care Trust and the Health Professions Council of our actions.

“We have also been in touch with the family of the patient to give them our condolences. Patient care is our number one priority and we treat any action which falls short of the high standard expected of our staff extremely seriously.

“Both the paramedic and advanced technician are now being dealt in line with the trust’s disciplinary process.”

Mr Asghar was a father of four. His youngest son, Mohammed, 33, said: “If you have a patient in an ambulance, you don’t worry about your bloody shift finishing.

“The driver should not get away with it. The time he took to detour could have saved my father’s life.”

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