A HIGH Court judge yesterday rejected a claim that the Fire Services Department's standing order requiring its ambulancemen to convey a patient to a requested hospital was unlawful.
Mr Justice Mayo, in dismissing the application, noted that the disciplinary board that found ambulanceman Mr Lee Fun-shing guilty of failing to comply with the order had concluded that he ''had given up all the benefit of the patient''.
The judge said he was not convinced that the order was necessarily inconsistent with the department's listed duties or that was illegal or irrational.
Mr Lee, who was reduced in rank from senior ambulanceman to ambulanceman last year, had lodged an application for a judicial review, contending that the standing order should be declared null and void.
On the evening of January 14, last year, Mr Lee and his crew were summoned to an address in Ping Shek Estate.
On arrival, Mr Yu Fu-keung said his 73-year-old father had fainted earlier but had regained consciousness.