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Flaw In Emergency Response System May Have Killed Hundreds

Posted by timothy on from the problem-with-algorithms dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that a flaw in the way emergency response software was set up to handle Category A responses in Great Britain may have cost hundreds of lives over the past ten years. Most ambulance services use an international computerized system designed in America and in the US version, a fall of more than 6 feet receives the maximum priority response. However, the government committee which governs its use in Great Britain decided that such cases should be deemed less urgent, and excluded from an eight minute category A target response time. If a call involved a fall of more than 6 feet it was designated a lower priority 'category B response' despite the presence of life-threatening conditions which were supposed to receive the most urgent category A response. The flaw came to light after Bonnie Mason, 58, fell 12 feet down the stairs and died from a head injury after emergency controllers in Suffolk failed to identify her situation as 'life-threatening.'"

5 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. Carol Beer was not a Satire by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 4, Funny

    Caller: Please hurry!! He's fallen down a 30ft well! Can't you get here any faster!?

    A&E Drone: *clackety clackety* ...... Computer say Nooooo....

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
    1. Re:Carol Beer was not a Satire by WillDraven · · Score: 5, Funny

      A friend of my dad's garage had been broken into several times. One night he heard the guy breaking in and called the cops. The dispatcher said nobody was available right then and he'd have to wait. He hung up the phone, waited a minute and then called back and said "You can take your time, I shot him." and hangs up.

      A minute later 3 cop cars come screaming up and catch the thief trying to run out the garage. The cops talked to the homeowner and said "We heard that you'd shot him."

      He responded "And I heard there was nobody available!"

      --
      This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
  2. Re:Not a flaw in the system by tsstahl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mod parent up. What we should be reading is a headline that says Great Britain Death Panel Doing Bang Up Job.

  3. 0118 9998 8199 9119 725 3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least the Brits can be credited for the genius of their new number and catchy jingle. Oh one one eight, nine nine nine--eight eight one nine nine, nine one one nine seven two five! .... three.

  4. Re:More like a flaw in statistics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...and we have a Queen you may have heard of.

    Please be Elton John...
    Please be Elton John...
    Please be Elton John...

    /clicks

    AWESOME!