The family of a man who died after an ambulance driver diverted to the depot instead of going to hospital has criticised the medic.

Father-of-four Ali Asghar, 69, from Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, died shortly after arriving in hospital from a suspected heart attack after suffering a stroke at his home.

His family are demanding answers to whether he would have survived if he had been taken straight to hospital.

Mr Asghar's youngest son, Mohammed, 33, said he was not aware of the delay in the ambulance arriving at hospital but alleged the driver was "responsible" for his father's death.

It has emerged the ambulance driver complained to a colleague that he was 15 minutes past the end of his duty and wanted to clock off.

It is said, he got out of the ambulance without even telling his replacement there was a critically sick case being tended by another medic in the back.

The new driver headed to the hospital as quickly as he could - but the detour had added half a mile to the journey.

The driver, a paramedic, and the medic who was in the back, an advanced technician, have since been suspended as health chiefs investigate the delay.

Ambulance controllers took a call about Mr Asghar, who lived just three miles from the North Tees Hospital at 3.52pm on May 18.

The crew were alerted to a Category A life-threatening incident and arrived at his home at 3.57pm.

After assessing the patient they left for the hospital at 4.13pm - for a journey taking around ten minutes.

Instead the driver headed to his depot where he got out with the patient remaining in the back of the ambulance with the technician until the new driver took the wheel. The vehicle then left the depot and arrived at the hospital at 4.27pm.

As soon as the patient got to A&E doctors administered CPR but were unable to save him. The delay was reported by the new driver who was just starting his shift.

A spokesman for North East Ambulance Service said: "This incident was immediately reported to us by another member of staff and as soon as we were notified, we acted to suspend a paramedic and an advanced technician from duty.

"We appointed a senior officer to carry out a full investigation of the incident and have notified the North East Strategic Health Authority, Stockton-on-Tees Teaching Primary Care Trust and the Health Professions Council of our actions.

"We have also been in touch with the family of the patient to give them our condolences and to keep them updated on developments.

"Patient care is our number one priority and we treat any action which falls short of the high standard expected of our staff extremely seriously.

"This has led to a thorough investigation and both the paramedic and advanced technician are now being dealt in line with the trust's disciplinary process."

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