Coroner's concerns over ambulance service after girl's drug overdose at Dreamland in Kent

ITV News

29-07-2025

A coroner has highlighted concerns over a private ambulance provider's staff training and vehicle equipment after a 17-year-old girl died from a drug overdose at a drum and bass event in Kent.
Emily Stokes died in hospital after attending the Worried About Henry day festival at Dreamland amusement park in Margate on 29 June last year.
An inquest found Emily died from MDMA toxicity. 21 other teenagers were also taken to hospital with drug-related symptoms following the gig.
A report has been published following the inquest which called on Kent Central Ambulance Service to take action to prevent future deaths.
According to the report, Emily's friends said she had possibly taken MDMA not long before she entered the festival, but she was also seen taking a tablet shortly after getting there.
She was taken to a medical tent at the event at around 3.20pm and left the site in an ambulance an hour later with a high temperature and heart rate and in a state of distress and confusion.
The teenager arrived at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital around five minutes later where she suffered a cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead shortly after 6pm.
Catherine Wood, assistant coroner for north-east Kent, said training of the Kent Central Ambulance Service staff involved was 'minimal' and that they had 'little experience or training in relation to management of patients having taken drugs'.
'Given that the teams on site were present and ambulances available at a music event where the risk of drug taking was deemed to be high, more training should have been provided to assist the staff in how to safely manage those under the influence of illicit substances,' the coroner added.
Ms Wood also raised concerns that the ambulance was not as equipped as an NHS vehicle would be.
'The ambulance did not have the same equipment which an NHS ambulance would have on board and was in essence very little more than a means of transport from the venue to the hospital and may have given a false sense of reassurance,' she said.
The coroner further criticised the fact that the hospital was not called ahead of the crew arriving there with Emily.
'There was a lack of clarity regarding who had responsibility for making a pre-alert call to the hospital and given this young girl was significantly unwell this should have been done,' she said.
'This, in part, may have been due to the lack of recognition of the seriousness of her symptoms and, therefore, potentially linked with training of staff.'
Responding to the coroner's concerns, Kent Central Ambulance Service said in its own report: 'The findings of the coroner have been taken with the utmost seriousness.
'As a healthcare provider, Kent Central Ambulance Service is committed to continuous learning, service improvement and ensuring the highest standards of patient safety, comfort and care.'
The company said it recognises staff at an event such as the Worried About Henry day festival 'where there was an increased likelihood of young persons in attendance coupled with the potential for illicit substance use' required a 'higher level of specific and scenario-based training'.
Crews sent to cover such events will now receive training covering recognition of drug and alcohol intoxication, clinical red flags, signs of deterioration and communication and escalation protocols.
The service said on-site paramedics directed on the day of the incident that a pre-alert call to the hospital was not needed but that its internal protocols have now been clarified to say 'crews are now explicitly empowered to pre alert independently if in doubt'.
Of the equipment available in its vehicles, the private ambulance provider said it has implemented a 'pre-event vehicle checklist' and that a 'clinical inventory standard is being developed and benchmarked against NHS specifications to ensure parity wherever possible'.