I had a similar incident a few years ago at another UK 'International' airport. We declared a PAN while on the ground due to a very seriously ill passenger, and requested ATC for an emergency (cardiac) ambulance. We taxied back to the stand at some speed and then waited bloody ages for the ambulance to arrive. It turned out that ATC had used an admin phone line to call our airline office and spoken to some untrained clerk about our emergency request. There then ensued a debate in the office about whether the airline would have to pay for the ambulance and whose budget it would come out of. Eventually an ambulance was called. It arrived pretty quickly at the airport and was then held up because the jobsworth said it didn't have an airside pass and nobody had thought to arrange for an airside escort.
During the subsequent enquiry, ATC HQ management tried to hide behind the exact and pedantic interpretation of a PAN call, and tried to pass the buck on to airport management, airline management, in short everybody except themselves. I think that the 'just following procedures' excuse is wrong. The procedures need changing. ATC should have a direct line to the ambulance service; notifying airport and airline staff should come second. Some untrained admin clerk and airport ops staff should not be involved in an emergency chain of communication.
[This message has been edited by Hew Jampton (edited 02 July 2001).]