This case report has spent a long time in review because it has been a challenge to strike a balance in the conclusions between acknowledging the risk of a particular model of health care and how that risk compares with other models. The authors have worked hard to focus the report on the particular case they report, explore the questions it raises about telephone triage systems and what form of evaluation should be undertaken on them. Telephone triage has clear advantages but the authors, with this illustrative case, question the associated risks and how they may be evaluated.

Dean Jenkins
Editor at Large

Death of an infant after contacting a telephone triage call centre: is telephone triage really safe?