An official apology from an ambulance service boss to a mum over failings in her daughter’s care got the date of her death wrong.

Quinn Beadle was 17 when she died in December 2018 after ending her own life in woodland not far from her home in Shildon, County Durham.

But an official apology letter to mum Tracey from the ambulance service sent in May over failings in Quinn’s care and the handling of a subsequent investigation never arrived.

Read more: Ambulance bosses apologise after damning report into paramedic 'cover up' scandal

Tracey only received the letter yesterday (Wednesday, August 3) after she emailed the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) asking why she still had not received an apology, the day before a meeting into a damning report on the service’s failings is due to be held.

When the letter arrived, Tracey found the ambulance service had wrongly dated her daughter’s death as five-and-a-half years ago, instead of four-and-a-half years ago.

The apology letter, signed by NEAS CEO Helen Ray and seen by The Northern Echo, says: “I wanted to contact you personally to say how truly sorry I am that the care given to Quinn, our investigation and your subsequent complaint were handled so poorly.

“I am very conscious that this organisation has contributed to the significant distress and grief you have endured over the past five-and-a-half years, and you have my unreserved apology for this.”

Tracey said: “How are we meant to expect answers when they can’t get things like that right.”

“We were meant to receive the letter in the post in May but never received it. You’d think they would have sent it recorded delivery.”

The ambulance service says it only found out Tracey had not received the letter on Tuesday.

A public ‘extraordinary’ meeting is to be held today (Thursday, August 3) by NEAS bosses to discuss the findings of a report published last month into failings by the trust, but Tracey only found out about the meeting on Tuesday (August 1) when she was contacted by another journalist.

An NEAS spokesperson said: “We only learned today that Mrs Beadle had not received the letter of apology from Chief Executive Helen Ray. As soon as we found out, we sent a copy by reply email to her. 

“When writing to Mrs Beadle, we mistakenly counted back to December 2018 in error. We fully accept there were failures in care for Quinn and would very much welcome an opportunity to meet with Mr and Mrs Beadle and offer our apology face-to-face.

“The Board of Directors meeting is being held in person at Bernicia House in Newcastle and will also be available online.”

Ex-North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) paramedic Gavin Wood declared Quinn dead rather than trying to perform CPR. He was struck off by an employment tribunal panel earlier this year after it heard he failed to carry out standard procedures, such as clearing her airways, trying to find a femoral pulse or using a defibrillator on Quinn.

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The failings came to light after whistleblower Paul Calvert told The Sunday Times that NEAS covered up fatal paramedic errors, and deliberately altered or omitted important facts that families and coroners should have known.

A report published last month said: “Both this investigation and previous reports have found a number of failings in how the Trust should have responded to the incidents and then in their response to concerns about how failings were accepted and followed up.

“It is important that the Trust formally and publicly reiterates that there have been failings and restates its wholehearted apologies to the families concerned.”

It added: “However small the probability of recovery was, [Quinn] deserved that chance and so did her family.”