The clock is ticking...

Every now and again you find out something which perhaps you would rather not have known.  As a result of the NHS's decision to run pilot trials in various parts of the country (unfortunately not round here it seems) I now know that - other than in these pilot areas - those who answer 999 calls have just one minute to decide whether the call warrants dispatching an ambulance.  Yes, that's right - sixty seconds!  I am appalled!  Touch wood, I will never have occasion to use the service, but if I had to I would hope and expect that my call would be properly assessed and I would have assumed that the operator would have taken whatever time was necessary to do that. In the pilot areas, by the way, the time limit is being increased to three minutes - better, but is this really an appropriate area for any kind of arbitrary limit?