Family of Corby man who died after being 'let down' by ambulance service start petition calling for action

Leigh Mcgivern, Peter’s mum launched the petition on Wednesday (May 28), as she believes EMAS staff were ‘abrupt, dismissive, and lacking in empathy’, ultimately resulting in a lack of clarity surrounding the seriousness of Peter’s condition.

Unlike paramedics, ambulance technicians are not legally required to register with the Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC), though it is encouraged.

The HPAC was established as a regulator in 2014 to ‘enhance clinician accountability and competence’, and is a voluntary register for a range of roles in the health sector.

Leigh is keen to see this change, as she believes ‘safety should never be optional’.

She said: “I am calling for urgent legislative change to require mandatory registration and regulation for all ambulance clinicians, regardless of level. If they are permitted to make life‑and‑death decisions, they must be held to the same standards as paramedics.

"This gap is dangerous. Technicians are permitted to make critical clinical decisions, including interpreting ECGs and determining whether a patient requires emergency treatment — yet they are not legally required to register with any regulatory body. If they are allowed to make decisions that determine life or death, they must be regulated to the same standard.

“I have now launched a petition calling for mandatory registration with an appropriate regulatory body, such as HPAC, for all ambulance clinicians.

“Public support is essential if we are to make the change needed to prevent other families from suffering what we have endured.”

Peter died on August 9, 2023 in Corby as a result of an acute myocardial infarction, as determined by the coroner during the inquest in January 2025.

He had reported chest pains to East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) the day before, who carried out an electrocardiogram (ECG) to measures the heart’s electrical activity and check for any problems.

A heart rate of 110bpm was recorded which was not believed to be a medical concern due to Peter’s anxiety.

The inquest heard the lead technician allowed Peter to travel independently without an ambulance to the hospital, and soon after in the car on the way to hospital, Peter ‘vigorously insisted’ he wanted to return home. He was found unresponsive the next morning, and pronounced dead at the scene.

In concluding the inquest in January 2025, coroner, Hassan Shah, believed Peter ‘did not have sufficient information about the seriousness of his condition’, and representatives of EMAS said the response was 'below the standard that patients should expect’.

In response to Leigh’s petition Michael Jones, divisional director for Northamptonshire at East Midlands Ambulance Service, said: “I am sincerely sorry that the service we provided to Mr Hynd was below the standard that patients should expect.

“We carried out a full Patient Safety Incident Investigation and identified areas where we have improved. This report and our recommendations were presented at the inquest which His Majesty’s Coroner accepted.

“I recognise that this came too late for Mr Hynd and his family, and for that we are sorry.”

Mum Leigh added: "Peter was not a statistic. He was a father, a son, a brother, a grandson a nephew and a friend. He had a two‑year‑old boy who will grow up without his daddy because someone who should have been accountable was not.

“I cannot bring Peter back. But I can fight to ensure no other mother or father receives the phone calls we did. No other child loses a parent because of an avoidable failure. No other family is told that nothing can be done because the person responsible is not regulated.

“This is not about blame. It is about safety. It is about accountability. It is about preventing avoidable deaths.”

The full petition can be found online here.