6toe.com

I’m glad to have learned this important lesson. Next time I have a heart attack, I will be sure to tidy up the house before I call the ambulance.

Ambulance controllers overheard a private conversation between the crew members in which they supposedly made disparaging remarks about the victim’s untidy home, allegedly failed to attempt to resuscitate him, and then apparently decided to claim he was already dead when they arrived.

Barry Baker, 59, dialled 999 from his home in Patcham, near Brighton in the early hours of November 29 and said that he was suffering from severe chest pains.

Controllers sent a paramedic and ambulance technician immediately, and although Mr Baker collapsed while talking on the phone, the line to the control centre was left open as he lay on the floor.

Minutes later the control staff heard the crew enter the house. A police source said: “What they heard after their ambulance crew arrived frankly astonished them.

“Apparently their first reaction was to comment on the untidy and unkempt state of the house. Then they are heard to comment on seeing Mr Baker and allegedly saying that it was not worth bothering to try to carry out resuscitation to try to save him. They then are heard discussing what to tell ambulance control and allegedly decide to say that he was already dead when they arrived.

“Obviously the crew did not realise that the phone was still connected and, of course, the 999 call was all recorded on tape,” said the source.

The unnamed ambulance staff were arrested after the tape was handed to the Sussex Police Major Crime Team.

They have been suspended from duty and a file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider prosecuting the pair for wilfully neglecting to perform a duty in public office.

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