A coroner has highlighted breakdowns in communication which led to lengthy delays in treating a stroke victim.
Confusion over the time the stroke unit at King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield closed also led to vital minutes being lost in the battle to save John Mallalieu.
That confusion led to the ambulance - which did not arrive until more than an hour after Mr Mallalieu's stroke began - having to be diverted to Nottingham's City Hospital.
On the second day of an inquest into Mr Mallalieu's death, nurses from King's Mill's emergency department and stroke unit gave evidence.
Coroner Mairin Casey said: "On that day there were a series of communication failures and confusion over cut-off times."
The inquest heard that at the time of Mr Mallalieu's stroke on December 6 last year, the King's Mill stroke unit was open from 8am on a Monday to 6pm on a Friday, but that patients could not be admitted after 5pm because of the complexities of getting them on the right drugs.
However since this time, the stroke unit has started operating 24/7 and paramedics contact the unit directly rather than A&E, which Miss Casey said meant such delays in the future were not likely.
She added: "If this whole situation happened now it is highly unlikely this would happen again, because the crew would phone directly to the stroke ward.
"There's a 24/7 service now so there would be no need to consult with the clock. The only issue would be bringing the patient to the nearest hospital in the fastest time."
The inquest had previously heard there had been delays in dispatching an ambulance to Mr Mallalieu's home in Caunton, near Newark, after his wife Ruth dialled 999.
A first responder did attend but she could not take him to hospital to get the urgently-needed clot-busting drug.
Lucy Brewster, a nurse in A&E at King's Mill, said she received a call from the first responder but she was not given an estimated time of arrival at the hospital as there was no ambulance on scene, something she said was "unusual". The stroke unit was then informed.
Fellow A&E nurse Laura King went on to say that she took a call from the ambulance crew saying they were on their way at 5.45pm - after the cut-off time for new arrivals in the stroke unit.
Having realised this she tried to contact the crew via the control room to ask them to divert to City Hospital but there were delays in doing so.
"I was aware that the crew were en route," said Miss King. "I remember being on the phone for a long time."
Miss King said she had not been made aware by colleagues that a call had already been made by the first responder and that the stroke unit was aware.
The inquest also heard that the unit contacted City Hospital but had originally been told they could not admit Mr Mallalieu.
The ambulance was eventually diverted to City Hospital, but Mr Mallalieu died there on December 22.
