Ambulance service under fire over woman’s death

A UK ambulance service recently recieved adverse publicity following the death of a woman who fell 12 feet after their computerized call priority system failed to prioritize the call correctly. The prioritization system, which originates here in the U.S.A. was, it is claimed, not able to identify the woman’s situation as life-threatening.

An investigation by a Sunday newspaper uncovered the dangers in this software which is used by this trust and most other ambulance services in the UK.

Some trusts spotted the technical risk and people operating the system were told to override the computer’s orders manually but the East of England Ambulance Service is one of five in England who did not allow call handlers to upgrade the calls.

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