Deadly Downgrades

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com For years, 999 calls in life-threatening situations like Mrs Masons's were accidentally "downgraded", with call handlers told not to send the most urgent response. ... The danger in the system was created by the country's most senior ambulance officials as they altered the program used by most control centres in an attempt to manage demand for 999 services. Most ambulance services use an international computerised system designed in America. In the US version, a fall of more than 6ft receives the maximum priority response. However, the government committee which governs its use in this country decided that such cases should be deemed less urgent, and excluded from an eight minute category A target response time. ... As a result, Mrs Mason lay unconscious for more than 38 minutes. Why on earth would anyone want health care decisions to be made by a centralized authority, least of all a "government committee"?