Claire Fray launches negligence case over 16-hour A&E wait — Channel 4 News
channel 4 news reports that Claire is launching a medical negligence case after her father, Robert Fray, was left unattended in a chair at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for 16 hours. Fray, 67, later died days after the delay, and the family is pursuing claims against West Midlands Ambulance Service and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
Robert Fray at Queen Elizabeth
Fray started developing signs of sepsis while attending a dialysis centre on April 4 2022, then had a stroke. An ambulance arrived nearly six hours after four calls were made, and he was directed into the waiting room just after 1.15am.
He remained there until nearly 5pm the following day. Hospital staff found him in a chair 12 hours after he was taken off the A&E waiting list at 4.39am because he had not responded to his name being called out on the tannoy.
Claire Fray
Claire said she is speaking out for the first time and described what happened to her father before he was taken to hospital. “He was being sick and then confusion set in,” she said.
She also recalled the last time she spoke to him: “I got him to the ambulance and he just looked at me and he was trying to say, ‘I love you’. But he couldn’t.”
Claire said: “Someone’s got to fight for him.”
West Midlands Ambulance Service
The family member who visited the A&E at 4pm the next day was told Robert had left the department, and Claire said: “We raced back to the hospital,” before the family later learned he had been found. She said: “Then, I had to sit with him for five days and wait for him to pass away,” and added: “He was my best friend,” describing him as “The first person I spoke to in the morning and the last person I spoke to at night.”
Claire’s case names West Midlands Ambulance Service and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. The trust and the ambulance service have previously argued that Robert’s death was not caused by the circumstances surrounding his care.
