A MEDICAL director admitted there was a “lot to learn” from the death of a 46-year-old Mold woman who spent five hours waiting in an ambulance to be admitted to Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

A Ruthin inquest heard there were other delays in treating Esther Jane Wood - who was suffering from a prolonged vaginal bleed - and these were not helped by the medics mistakenly believing she was drunk and had a learning disability.

Senior medics launched a Serious Incident Review to see whether lessons could be learned after Miss Wood died two days after being admitted on April 6 last year.

Cerys Goodrum, Miss Woods’ sister, said the family were upset that an ambulance paramedic who went to Miss Wood’s home in Hazel Grove was convinced she was under the influence of drink.

“The ambulanceman told me my sister was an alcoholic and he had picked her up in Buckley on a few occasions,” she said.

“I told him that couldn’t have been possible as my sister wouldn’t leave the house and probably wouldn’t even know where Buckley was.”

“He told my mum she would be in the ambulance until she sobered up.”

After being transported from her home to the medical complex’s emergency department, Miss Wood spent a lengthy period in the ambulance which was parked up because other emergency vehicles had greater clinical priority.

Intensive care consultant Dr Graham Mayers said Miss Wood was triaged shortly after arriving at the Maelor on the basis of her bleeding.

She was administered a vitamin medication and he said it was reasonable the medics considered her condition was alcohol-related given her history.

Miss Wood’s condition deteriorated the following day and she suffered a heart attack while her alcohol-related liver disease moved into a critical phase.

But Wrexham Maelor’s medical director Dr Stephen Stanaway admitted there was too much focus on her possible intoxification and a delay of 36 hours before seeing a gynaecologist was unhelpful.

An action plan has since been drawn up to improve the handover process between gynaecological teams at the hospital as well as encouraging staff to escalate to involve on-call consultants.

“There was a failure to question her mental state with her family by assuming the patient had learning difficulties and alcohol intoxication,” he said.

The chief medic also said there was a “significant delay” in taking bloods and no complete set of observations, and added: “Here again, that would be against what we normally do.”

“We can learn about communication and how cracks in communication can open up during a patient’s stay in hospital,” said Dr Stanaway.

Miss Wood’s brother, David Williams, said: “Under the influence of alcohol and a learning disability were labels which stayed with our sister throughout her stay in hospital.

“Without them we feel it could have changed the care provided and prolonged my sister’s life.”

North Wales East and Central assistant coroner David Pojur reached a conclusion that Miss Wood died of natural causes as a result of bronchial pneumonia, heart and liver failure, alcohol/liver disease as well as a myocardial infarction and a neuro endocrine tumour.

In his Prevention of Future Deaths Report he ruled that action needed to be taken to reduce waiting times for patients discharged by ambulances at Wrexham Maelor’s emergency department.

“There is a future risk that further deaths will occur unless action is taken to prevent patients being kept waiting in ambulances,” said Mr Pojur.