has welcomed calls for an inquiry into an alleged mix-up which resulted in a 40 minute delay before an ambulance was dispatched to a dying man.

The Royal Gazette reported last week that relatives of alleged murder victim Dean Antoine Young called for an inquiry into why, despite witnesses stating they called for an ambulance from 2.30 a.m. onwards, a crew was not sent from the Hospital until 3.10 a.m..

The Supreme Court murder trial of Randy Burgess has heard that several 911 emergency calls were made before an ambulance was dispatched to Border Lane, Pembroke, where Mr. Young had collapsed from wounds.

Mr. Shultz said "meticulous records'' showed only one 911 call for Border Lane was made in the early hours of October 9 last year and that an ambulance was dispatched a minute later.

In a letter to The Royal Gazette , Mr. Shultz said that since February 1999, all 911 calls for medical and fire assistance are routed through a central dispatcher at Fire Service Control.

The dispatcher at Fire headquarters then directs the calls to the Hospital - or emergency services throughout the Island - to request an ambulance. He said all 911 calls to the Fire Service and the Hospital were recorded.

Several witnesses in the trial said a number of 911 calls were made, the first being at about 2.30 a.m. It is not clear why only one call apparently reached the Hospital, at 3.09 a.m.

In his letter, Mr. Shultz said the Hospital only received one call -- at 3.09 a.m. -- and an ambulance was dispatched at 3.10 a.m.

In his letter, he states: "As Bermudians resort to increasingly violent solutions to their disputes, there appears to be a trend towards assigning blame for the loss of life to those of us who work in the emergency services rather than the perpetrators of these horrific crimes who wield knives, machetes or baseball bats.

"The ambulance service and emergency staff receive much criticism and little praise for the fine work they do in saving many lives and providing treatment for nearly 32,000 patients each year.

"The family of the victim in this case has called for an inquiry into the delay in ambulance response. We extend our condolence to the family members and would welcome such an inquiry.

"We believe that a one minute response time would be found to be acceptable for emergency services anywhere in the world.'' Mr. Young's mother Carolyn, who made the call for an inquiry, said the investigation should look at what happened to all the other 911 calls made on the morning her son died.

She told The Royal Gazette last night: "A lot of people, including Burgess, said they called 911, so where are all the calls that people made? "A few people said they couldn't get through, so where did these calls go to.

Where are the calls recorded? Whoever takes the calls should account for the calls not going to the right person and not being answered promptly.''