THE father of a student who died on the way to her May ball

says Great Western Ambulance Service might have contributed to

her death.

Rebecca Wedd died in hospital after she was hit by a car in

Cirencester and had to wait 40 minutes for an ambulance.

Her father Peter is furious that more improvements have not

been made 12 months after the collision.

On May 25 last year, the 23-year-old was walking along the

A433 near Coates to the Royal Agricultural College, where she

studied, when she was hit by a silver BMW.

She lay injured by the roadside for 42 minutes – 34 minutes

longer than the target for life-threatening emergency calls –

before an ambulance reached her.

A report released today by the Healthcare Commission follows

a year-long investigation into the ambulance service, prompted

by the incident.

It acknowledges a 'serious failure' on the part of the Trust

to respond to the incident within a reasonable time.

It has made a series of recommendations for improvements to

ensure such an incident cannot happen again.

But Mr Wedd says the report doesn't go far enough.

He said: "I'm bitter towards the ambulance Trust and this

report confirms why I feel like I do. It shows they still

haven't done things they should have done.

"No one has been able to tell me whether Rebecca died as a

result of the collision or because of the delay in getting her

to hospital.

"Forty-two minutes is totally unacceptable for an injury of

that nature.

"I can never stop thinking what might have happened if they

had got to her quickly. It might have made all the

difference."

Mr Wedd, whose other daughter Caroline was also a student at

the college, said he is considering taking further action.

The report recognised that the Trust has put in force a

computer system so that the whereabouts of all vehicles can be

seen in each of the control centres.

It is also providing paramedics with further training and is

working to ensure there is adequate cover when staff are off

sick.

But the Healthcare Commission says the Trust needs to make

more improvements.

It has recommended it improves its system for investigating

incidents and needs to make sure staff are clear about their

roles at work.

The Trust should put in place a new control room structure

as soon as possible to provide clarity for staff about line

management roles and operational issues.

The Commission will re-visit the Trust in six months to

check progress on the recommendations.

Nigel Ellis, the Commission's Head of Investigations, said:

"The incident that triggered this intervention is a real

tragedy. It follows that the Trust should continue to do

everything possible to ensure it does not happen again."

Rebecca had just finished her final exams in International

Equine and Agricultural Business Management. An internal

investigation by the Trust highlighted several factors which

contributed to failings.

They included another traffic collision on the night which

tied up three ambulances, sickness of a crew member in

Cirencester and a vehicle defect.

TIM Lynch, chief executive of the Great Western Ambulance

Service, said: "We recognise there were serious failings in our

service at the time of this incident. I'd like to personally

apologise to the father of Rebecca Wedd and to express my

profound regret for the loss of his daughter.

Dr Ossie Rawstorne, clinical director at Great Western

Ambulance Service, said: "We welcome this report from the

Healthcare Commission which concerns an incident involving the

death of a young woman. Our thoughts are very much with her

family.

"I wish to reassure the public that Great Western Ambulance

Service is delivering better and faster patient care than ever.

We still have challenges ahead but we have made significant

improvements in the past 17 months.   

"The Commission uses an annual Category A performance figure

published in June this year, which is not the latest. We are

now performing better than ever before.

"We are regularly meeting the new Call Connect Category A

target which means that we should attend life threatening

incidents within 8 minutes, 75 per cent of the time.

"Since this incident happened, we have introduced a Trust-wide

aided dispatch system which means that we're now able to see

where each crew and vehicle is located at any time and dispatch

the nearest  vehicle.

"We're answering calls faster than ever before - 98 per cent of

calls are answered within three seconds - and we're creating a

skilled workforce that's improving the quality of care we

offer.

"We accept all five of the Commission's recommendations and

will have implemented four of them completely by the end of

next month. We've made significant progress on the remaining

recommendation."