Actually, what Dr Crippen is describing doesn't sound remotely like the protocol we use in London for doctors arranging an ambulance. First of all we do have a different set of questions for doctors (or any of a list of medical professionals). With the general public, the AMPDS system lets us prioritise patients based on layman's information (even then the question "is he/she breathing?" is sometimes met with screams of "I don't know, I'm not a doctor!"). With medical professionals, we simply ask what is the reason for admission?", followed by "does this condition present an immediate threat to life". We are then able (as in the trust Either/Or works for) to give an immediate (blue light) response, or one within 1, 2, 3 or 4 hours as required for a clinical reason (i.e. not because the GP wants to close his surgery in 45 minutes). The only time we use the AMPDS protocol for doctor's calls is when the answer to 'reason for admission' is on a certain list of conditions (a list that, as it happens, includes chest pain / ?MI). In this instance, we do not actually have to ask the questions on the protocol, just use it to generate the pre-determined response for the condition (although, before I clarified this with one of our quality assurance managers, I did once ask a doctor things like "is he changing colour?, is he clammy?". Bless him for the patience he showed me).