999 driver keeps job after refusing to answer call to a dying woman

AN AMBULANCE driver who refused to respond to an emergency call in which a woman died because he was on a tea break is to keep his job.

• Mandy Mathieson died after suffering a heart attack only 800 yards from the ambulance station

Owen McLauchlan, 23, was suspended from duty as a technician with the Scottish Ambulance Service two months ago after he failed to accept a call-out. Mandy Mathieson, 33, died after suffering a heart attack only 800 yards from the ambulance station in the Speyside village of Tomintoul.

Mr McLauchlan, who is normally based in nearby Dufftown, had been providing ambulance cover in the remote village while the local full-time members of the ambulance crew - Ms Mathieson's sister and brother-in-law - were on holiday.

Ms Mathieson's sister, Michelle Fernie, 39, is the full-time ambulance technician in Tomintoul, and her husband Keith Fernie, 41, is the village paramedic.

Ms Mathieson is understood to have been pronounced dead on 16 October after an ambulance finally arrived at her home in Stewart Place from Grantown-on-Spey, 19 miles away.

Her partner, Bobby Taylor, had dialled 999 when he returned home to find Ms Mathieson lying in bed and not breathing.

The death of Ms Mathieson, an accounts technician at the Cairngorms National Park Authority in Grantown, led to calls from her family for an end to ambulance crews being allowed to opt out of responding to 999 calls.

A spokesman for the ambulance service confirmed yesterday that Mr McLauchlan would not be sacked. He said: "The Scottish Ambulance Service has completed its investigation into the incident in Tomintoul on 16 October. The ambulance technician involved will undertake further training and pass an evaluation before being allowed to return to operational duties."

He added that chief executive Pauline Howie and chairman David Garbutt would be meeting members of the community in Tomintoul on 28 January.

Ms Mathieson's brother, Charles Mathieson, 40, an Aberdeen-based firefighter, stressed yesterday that the family had not been calling for Mr McLauchlan to be sacked. But the family remained concerned that Mr McLauchlan would be allowed to remain a member of the Scottish Ambulance Service in the same geographical area as Ms Mathieson's sister and brother-in-law.

He said: "It puts my sister in a very difficult position because, their paths are going to cross, and I don't think it's fair on Michelle and my brother-in-law that they will be working only 20 miles apart. I would have thought that the best thing for him (Mr McLauchlan) to do would have been to ask for a transfer out of the area."

He added: "None of us wanted him to lose his job.But being a member of the emergency services, I will never be able to get my head round the fact that he could be in that job and refuse to go to the aid of somebody who was obviously desperately in need.

"You would have thought a bit of compassion and common sense would have come into play. I don't think he should be working in the same area where it happened. If he is in Dufftown and there is a 999 call and the Tomintoul ambulance is out on a job, it is not outwith the realms of possibility that he will be back in Tomintoul, and that's putting him (Mr McLauchlan) in an extremely awkward position."

Mr Mathieson added: "What we still want is an end to the policy of ambulance staff being allowed to opt out of calls because they are on a break. We just want to make sure that this tragedy never happens again to another family in the future."

Ms Mathieson's uncle, Charlie Skene, 52, also called for Mr McLauchlan to be posted elsewhere. He said: "He was only abiding by their rules, but what are they going to teach him? Surely they can't teach him compassion, so what will they give him lessons in?"