AMBULANCE chiefs have explained why paramedics refused to break into a York house to treat a 90-year-old man who had collapsed.

An ambulance crew waited 20 minutes until police arrived to force entry into Philip Harris's house in Hamilton Drive, Holgate, before they were able to get in and take him to hospital.

An ambulance service spokeswoman said crews could only break into a patient's home if their condition was judged to be immediately life-threatening.

Mr Harris, a former York Lions president and St Peter's School head of science, died several days later through a combination of illnesses. A neighbour who raised the alarm after spotting Mr Harris lying on the floor told the Evening Press he was concerned at the delay in treating him.

"The frustrating thing was that my friend was still lying there half an hour after I found him," he said.

Mr Harris' daughter-in-law, Baroness Angela Harris - a former chairwoman of North Yorkshire Police Authority - raised the matter with senior police officers. She now says she is satisfied that the delay did not cause her father-in-law's death.

A spokeswoman for Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS) said: "In cases such as this, the crew must make a clinical assessment when they reach the scene as to whether or not the patient's condition is life-threatening.

"In this particular case, as they were talking to the patient throughout, the crew judged him to be in a non life-threatening situation and therefore took the appropriate course of action in requesting the police to 'break and enter' the property.

"A clinical assessment must be made in each individual case, and we are satisfied that the crew acted in accordance with trust practice."

Philip Harris's son John said: "If there was a delay in reaching my father it's very unfortunate because he was in some distress."

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said an officer took 20 minutes to reach the scene as the paramedics gave him a "slightly wrong address".

"The incident has been examined by a senior police officer who is satisfied that the police acted correctly," he said.

An ambulance spokeswoman said they believed the officer was given the correct address.

Baroness Harris, who left the police authority two years ago, said: "I think the explanation we had from the police was perfectly adequate and understandable."

Updated: 09:00 Thursday, November 06, 2003