Ambulance firm carrying Peggy Copeman struck off following CQC inspection

The private ambulance firm that was carrying a New Buckenham grandmother as she died has been shut down by care watchdogs.

Premier Rescue Ambulance Service (PRSA) has been struck off following a CQC inspection in September - which rated the Somerset-based firm as ‘Inadequate’.

The service was carrying 81-year-old Peggy Copeman whilst she died from a cardiac arrest on the hard shoulder of the M1 back on December 16, 2019.

Mrs Copeman had been sent on a 200-mile journey to Cygnet Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Somerset, earlier that week - due to a lack of available beds at the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.

Four days later she was put in a PRSA ambulance and sent back to Norfolk but became unresponsive during the journey and died in the back of the vehicle.

An inquest in June last year heard that PRSA had failed to provide “prompt medical attention” – which the coroner determined had contributed to Mrs Copeman’s death.

Her son-in-law, Nick Fulcher, who has been campaigning for more metal health services in south Norfolk since his mother-in-law’s death, said: “We are happy that the CQC have made this decision.

The 57-year-old, of The Street, North Lopham, continued: “If they can treat an 81-year old-lady like that as she died whilst sitting bested them it speaks volumes.

“I’m just pleased we’ve got some justice for our dear Peggy.

“If they had let them carry on, it would have been a kick in the teeth for a sad death that should never have happened.”