AMBULANCE bosses have assured patients in Worcestershire their satellite navigation systems are kept fully up-to-date after a report raised concerns around crews having trouble finding addresses.

NHS England this week issued an alert around ambulance crews relying on sat navs which were not kept fully up-to-date - which could mean life or death in an emergency.

In 2011 nine-year-old Corey Seymour died after ambulance crews took nearly 25 minutes to reach his home in Bromsgrove – despite the nearest station being just one mile away. Although it later emerged the ambulance's sat nav had sent the crew in the wrong direction, an inquest found that it would have made no difference to his death.

The NHS England report found 66 cases in which patients’ safety was put at risk as a result of outdated systems, including one in which crews on the way to a cardiac arrest were delayed by 10 minutes as new road layouts had not been uploaded to their sat nav. When the crew’s central control room was contacted it emerged their maps were not up-to-date either.

But a West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said its teams never relied entirely on sat nav systems.

“The trust updates its control room systems with changes to the road network as data is released by local authorities,” she said.

“This means that we update more regularly than data is released by the Ordnance Survey.

“The trust is currently in the middle of a programme of updating the sat navs on all of its operation vehicles, work which pre-dates the Patient Safety Alert.

“In addition, we are in the process of rolling out a wireless system that will see satellite navigation systems used in A&E vehicles which will result in them being updated automatically without the need to bring the vehicle off the road.”

In another case in 2006 a London Ambulance Service crew were sent 200 miles in the wrong direction by a faulty sat nav. The crew were supposed to drive 12 miles to Mascalls Park Hospital in Brentwood, Essex, and only realised something was wrong when they reached the outskirts of Manchester.

The NHS England report said sat nav systems were vital to help crews find the location of an emergency, but it was crucially important they were kept up-to-date.

“Ambulances are expected to provide a rapid response to life-threatening situations,” it said.

“If delayed, this can impact on patient safety and outcome.”