AN AMBULANCE took almost two hours to take an injured girl to hospital after it was misdirected to the scene of the accident by its satellite navigation system.

Chloe Banks, 10, was left lying in the road in the village of Greenside, near Gateshead, for almost an hour waiting for an ambulance after she was injured in a car smash.

The crew then took such a circuitous route to the accident and emergency department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital that the child’s older brother, Colin, 20, questioned the driver.

He was told that they were following the directions of the satellite navigation system.

Maggie Banks, 39, the injured child’s mother, has complained that Chloe was knocked down three weeks ago outside a new skate park in the village at 1.30pm, but did not arrive at the hospital until 3.20pm.

She was treated at the scene by a rapid-response paramedic within six minutes and is now on holiday with her family in Spain and making a full recovery. Mrs Banks said: “Fortunately, her injuries were not more serious. I would not even like to think about how it could have been.”

A subsequent inquiry by the North-East Ambulance Service established that there were no ambulance crews in Gateshead to ferry the child to hospital. A crew from Sunderland were called at 1.54pm after they dropped off a patient in Newcastle.

The crew, who were unfamiliar with the area, were further delayed when the satellite navigation system guided them down a road in nearby Ryton that was too narrow for the ambulance. Although within sight of the scene, the crew were forced to back up and find another way, finally arriving at 2.26pm.

Mrs Banks, who travelled in the ambulance, was shocked when the ten-mile journey to the hospital took another 40 minutes. The navigational aide directed the crew along a B-road, rather than the more direct route along the dual-carriageway A695.

Mrs Banks, a cleaner, said: “Chloe was lying on the ground vomiting and bleeding and she kept saying to me, ‘Mum, am I going to die?’. We had to wait almost an hour for the ambulance to come and take her.

“I thought then we would go straight to the QE but they went around Rowlands Gill and Swalwell. My son told the crew it would have been quicker going to Ryton on the bypass, but the lady who was driving said she was going off the navigational system.”

Mrs Banks, married to Colin, 43, a driver, has raised concerns about the system with the ambulance trust.

A North-East Ambulance Service spokesman said that they understood Mrs Bank’s concerns. However, he emphasised that paramedics arrived within six minutes and the child was treated at the scene. It was the transportation rather than emergency treatment that was subject to a delay.

The journey from Newcastle to Greenside is 10.3 miles and should take no more than 20 to 25 minutes. A reporter drove from the crash site to the hospital yesterday, using local knowledge, in 22 minutes.