An ambulance service co-ordinator took an hour to pass on a case involving a Stirling man who had a heart attack and died in his office, a fatal accident inquiry heard.
Explaining the 60-minute delay in sending the case for triage – during which frantic first-aiders battled to keep Graham Anderson alive – Claire Goodfellow said she must have been “distracted” by a phone call.
Miss Goodfellow, 48, a qualified advanced paramedic, was giving evidence on Friday, the second day of a fatal accident inquiry into the death of Mr Anderson, 59 at the petrochemicals plant in Grangemouth, on May 1 2020.
Call took hour to pass on
The probe heard that during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic the Scottish Ambulance Service had introduced a new system to deal with some 999 calls.
Those initially rated less urgent were colour-coded “teal” and callers were told to expect a return call from someone who would work out how best to help them.
Mr Anderson, a stores co-ordinator, was found lying in his office at the CalaChem complex at 7.50 to 7.55am.
Staff rang 999 at 7.57am and an ambulance service call handler took details and the Scottish Ambulance Service computer system coded the case “teal”.
The inquiry heard it then appeared on a spreadsheet in front of Miss Goodfellow, whose job was to allocate it to a remote-working paramedic who would phone and speak to those with Mr Anderson.
Miss Goodfellow said, at the time, the system was that she would manually select a free paramedic, then ring them to give the job.
The court heard the system has since been changed.
Miss Goodfellow admitted it had taken 60 minutes for her to phone the paramedic.
She had only realised the case was outstanding when a manager queried why the call was “still sitting”.
She immediately rang the remote paramedic to tell him he had been allocated – at 9.10am – more than 70 minutes after the first call from CalaChem.
Call played to inquiry
Miss Goodfellow told the inquiry, at Stirling Sheriff Court: “Normally I do the two steps together.
“The only thing I can think of is I was about to phone him and the phone rang and I was distracted.”
At 9.15 the remote paramedic – who had by then spoken to first-aiders with Mr Anderson – phoned her back.
In a tape recording, played to the inquiry, he tells her: “It’ll need to be a red call.
“Sudden collapse, blue. He regained consciousness but he’s got chest pain.”
Miss Goodfellow responds “Oh God. Right” and upgrades the call to red.
An ambulance was dispatched, arriving at 9.22am, but there was then a further wait while the crew donned PPE.
Mr Anderson went into cardiac arrest and was formally pronounced dead an hour later, due to coronary atheroma and thrombosis.
The inquiry heard earlier from first-aider Graham Malcolm, who said the Scottish Ambulance Service had taken “what seemed like a lifetime” to turn up.
The inquiry, before Sheriff Keith O’Mahony, will continue in April.
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