The Coroner of Inquests has recommended a review of internal policies for 999 call operators after a man took his own life.

Philip Carl Massam, aged 33, of Ramsey died in February 2021.

Mr Massam was working on a building site when he took his own life on February 17, 2021.

During the inquest, Coroner Chris Arrowsmith found that one of his colleagues had rung 999, only for the operator to fail to give proper guidance and 'started to panic' when she was unable to find the particular code on the computer system used by the emergency services joint control room in such incidents.

If she had used the correct code, it would have given the operator different instructions relevant to the situation being faced by Mr Massam's colleagues.

One of the person's colleagues, who was working in the emergency services joint control room that day, witnessed the difficulty the operator was having and attempted to assist her.

However, Mr Arrowsmith said that her colleague was 'struggling to listen to both her and to the other person on the call and appeared to be pressing irrelevant buttons'.

The operator who took the call accepted that she should have selected the correct entry on the drop down list on the screen, but this was not done.

Concerns were raised by colleagues about the operator's ability to do the job and her using the computers for non-work related reasons, such as going on Facebook while on shift. Despite this, her supervisor said that he was monitoring her work and would have taken action if he had any concerns about this.

Despite the delay in treatment caused by the confusion, the inquest heard that early medical intervention was unlikely to have made any significant difference to his chances of survival.

At the conclusion of his report, Mr Arrowsmith said he would be making two recommendations to the Department of Home Affairs that: 'Consideration to be given to review the internal policies and procedures for emergency services joint control room operators accessing non-work related internet sites whilst on duty and consideration to be given to include specific training dealing with calls relating to hanging within the two-year certification recurrence process for emergency services joint control room operators.'

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