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Sat nav 'rule' leaves patient stranded
An elderly man was taken the wrong way to hospital through country lanes twice by ambulance crews, due to faulty satellite navigation devices.
The "anomaly" in the system led to Leslie Palmer, 79, enduring a 45-minute trip to accident and emergency both times when it should only have taken 20 minutes.
But separate ambulance crews in separate vehicles told his wife of 55 years, Jean, that they had to use sat nav as that was the rule.
Mrs palmer said: "We were soon going through lanes I had never seen before.
"We were on little roads no bigger than the ambulance and my husband's head was shaking around and we thought we were going to end up in a farm yard at any minute.
"It's an utter nonsense. Taxi drivers have to know the roads, why can't the ambulance driver know the roads - I cannot believe it."
The incident happened on the way to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.
An ambulance spokesman said staff had the use of satellite navigation systems to travel to all locations and crews did have the option to override the system if they were familiar with the route.
She said the service covered a vast area and that some crews would have to use the system if they didn't know the area.
She said: "It is likely that there was an anomaly with the settings (of the sat nav) which has been checked.
"We would like to confirm that this is an unusual occurrence and would like to reassure the public that we will do everything we can to avoid a similar occurrence."
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Weather for Preston
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -6 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
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