December 02, 2006

Ambulance crew's sat-nav howler
Michael Horsnell

The two hundred mile detour

An ambulance crew’s blind faith in a satellite navigation system turned the routine 20-minute transfer of a patient between hospitals into a 400-mile odyssey.

The patient survived the epic journey but the paramedics have become the laughing stock of the London Ambulance Service, it was disclosed yesterday.

Instead of driving the eight miles from King George’s Hospital in Ilford, East London, to the mental health unit of Mascalls Park Hospital in Brentwood, Essex, the pair found themselves 200 miles off-track on the outskirts of Manchester before they realised their blunder and turned back.

The sat-nav with a mind of its own has undergone reorientation while the ambulancemen have been told to undertake a geography lesson and learn to think for themselves.

They drove for eight hours before finally delivering the patient. After the equipment sent them north, they covered 215 miles in about four hours. The way back was only slightly shorter and took more than 3½ hours.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said that the male patient’s health was not endangered by the journey. “It was a transfer not a medical priority and I understand he had a comfortable journey.”

He added that the co- ordinates of all hospitals on their database were being checked. He said: “We carry out transfers not just to London hospitals but all over the country. Obviously they thought they were going to a hospital further afield.

“On the screen of the mobile data terminal it would have said Mascalls Hospital but they were not being directed anywhere specific, just somewhere in Manchester.

“The problem with the navigation database is also now being fixed.” He added: “We believe that the crew was relatively new to the job.”

The paramedics are far from unusual in being deceived by their sat-nav systems.

Last month a woman dodged oncoming traffic for 14 miles after misreading her sat-nav system and driving the wrong way up a dual carriageway.Police said it was a miracle that no one was injured after the young woman joined the A3M, which links Portsmouth to London, on the southbound side — only to head north.

In September a taxi driver took two teenage girls 85 miles in the opposite direction after keying the wrong place name into his sat-nav. The girls asked to go to Lymington in the New Forest, Hampshire, but the driver tapped in Limington, Somerset.