Father died of heart failure after 999 operator said computer results showed ambulance was not needed... even though station was just three minutes awayÂ Bill McLaughlin felt unwell and called 999 after struggling to breatheÂ But operator told the father computer showed ambulance 'wasn't needed' This is despite taxi driver from Bridport suffering recent health problemsÂ Six hours later, he was visited by his GP who immediately called 999Â 55-year-old was then taken into intensive care at Dorset County Hospital But the former merchant navyman died there four days later Family want to know why computer was used to decide if he needed ambulance Say they are now considering suing South Western Ambulance Service By Christian Gysin for the Daily Mail The family of a man who died after he was refused an ambulance claimed yesterday he lost his life because an NHS â€˜computer said noâ€™. Taxi driver Bill McLaughlin dialled 999 at 5am as he was finding it hard to breathe. But after putting his details into a computer an operator told him he did not need an ambulance.Â Taxi driver Bill McLaughlin, who was told that he didn't need an ambulance despite saying he found it hard to breathe and living just a mile away from his local ambulance stationÂ The 55-year-old, a former merchant seaman, had been ill for three weeks and had seen five doctors about swelling after a change in his blood pressure medication. It has now emerged he did not give the answers that â€˜triggerâ€™ the need for an ambulance and was told to contact his GP instead. Pat Woodcock, 75, Mr McLaughlinâ€™s partner of ten years, said: â€˜I donâ€™t drive and by this point his stomach was so swollen he couldnâ€™t get behind the steering wheel. â€˜In the end his doctor came out to see us just before 1pm and said he needed to go to hospital. They took him in a paramedic car, got him to the [intensive care] ward â€¦ He never regained consciousness.â€™Â Mr McLaughlin died four days later, on September 1. A post-mortem examination found fluid around his body had caused heart failure. His family demanded to know why an ambulance had not been sent in the first place, from a station just three minutes from his home in Bridport, Dorset. They were told a computer system had decided neither an ambulance nor immediate hospital admission was necessary. The â€˜computer says noâ€™ catchphrase was coined by comedian David Walliams in the BBCâ€™s Little Britain, in which a worker inputs data and then informs a customer they cannot be helped.Â Mr McLaughlin pictured with his partner Pat Woodcock. Miss Woodcock says she wants answers after a 999 operator refused to send an ambulance for him A map showing how Mr McLaughlin lived just a mile from the Gore Cross Business Park in Bridport, where the ambulance station is located Last night Mr McLaughlinâ€™s son Ross, 28, said: â€˜I think Dad was let down by the NHS even before the ambulance. No one seemed to be doing anything about the fluid building up in his body. â€˜It was then decided by a computer programme run by non-medically trained personnel who listen out for keywords, enter them â€¦ and the computer said no. I thought it was like Little Britain â€¦ but my dad died and thatâ€™s not acceptable.â€™ He added that an ambulance â€˜would have given him an extra ten to 12 hours of treatment â€¦ that could have saved his life, but thereâ€™s no way to know for sure nowâ€™. The family is considering legal action to get the computer assessment system changed. A South Western Ambulance Service spokesman said: â€˜Every time a call is made â€¦ a comprehensive triage process is undertaken. â€˜An ambulance will be dispatched to those deemed to be in a life-threatening condition.â€™Â