AN INQUEST into the death of a popular Rhyl teacher will examine why a particular procedure could not be carried out at Glan Clwyd Hospital outside normal hours.

Enquiries will also be made into the response by the Welsh Ambulance Services Trust to the 999 call and into the amount of time Vivienne Greener was kept waiting in an ambulance before being admitted into hospital.

Mrs Greener, 64, of Lilac Avenue, Rhyl, died in hospital on March 20 last year. At the inquest opening the provisional cause of death was given as multi-organ failure due to sepsis.

The mother-of-two taught at Ysgol Mair, Rhyl, for 30 years and earned praise for raising the pupils' literacy and numeracy skills.

At a pre-inquest hearing in Ruthin to determine some of the arrangements David Pujor, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, said the fact that an endoscopy - a procedure to carry out internal examination - could not be done outside 9-5 hours and not at weekends, was clearly more of a system failure than an individual error.

For that reason he would classify it as an Article 2 inquest under European Convention on Human Rights which says the state has a responsibility to protect human life.

"The issue is that there was no endoscopy because the system does not allow it to be done out of hours and at weekends and that seems very clearly to be a system matter," he said.

Under the wider scope of the Article 2 hearing the inquest will also consider the priority given to the 999 call in which the call handler was told that Mrs Greener was coughing up blood.

The first paramedic arrived alone and another hour passed before an ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.

Mr Pojur said he would be calling witnesses to help him decide whether the call had been properly categorised and why there had been a "significant wait" outside the hospital.

A serious incident review was carried out by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board following Mrs Greener's death and the actions taken as a result will also be outlined at the full hearing.

An independent medical expert is to be called but Mr Pojur said he could not agree to a request from Mrs Greener's husband Philip that witnesses be heard about his wife's medical history over the previous 18 months.

Mr Pojur said he had also not yet decided whether the case should be heard by a jury or by him alone.

He told Mr Greener: "It will be a full, fair and fearless hearing."

The inquest is expected last up to four days but a date has not yet been fixed.