A couple of things that struck me about this... a) Would it have been better if a "paramedic" had taken her to hospital and someone with a heart attack died because no Paramedic was available? b) I don't know what it is in this country about the attitude to volunteers? The RNLI boat load of volunteers that comes to the rescue of those in distress at sea? Every police force in the country uses volunteers, Special Constables. A lot also used highly trained Search and Rescue Teams to look for lost vunerable people. Usually a Association of Lowland Search and Rescue Team. In mountainous areas it is a Moutain Rescue Team - all highly train volunteers. At the end of the day and if someone with a lot more medical knowledge and experience than me wants to correct me go for it. The lady did not seem to be in an immediate life threatening emergency. No mention was made of her asking to wait at home until Paramedics became available to take her in. I did think it was a balanced report in that they did state a couple of comments that if people stopped abusing the 999 system with LOB calls then maybe the resources such as Paramedics would be available. Alternatively maybe the whingers would like to give more of their wages in taxes to make up the difference.