LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen heard complaints Tuesday from residents that two medical-emergency dispatching calls were not handled efficiently by Androscoggin County.

Bruce Korhonen told selectmen that a week ago his neighbor’s wife had trouble getting a 911 dispatcher to listen to her when she was trying to get them to call an ambulance for her husband who was lying on the floor.

Korhonen said his son went over and ended up yelling at the dispatcher, and finally an ambulance appeared more than 15 minutes later, Korhonen said.

The Livermore Falls police officer was dispatched fine and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he said, adding that he has no problem with the Livermore Falls dispatchers.

Having the 911 emergency-medical calls being dispatched by another agency is not working, Korhonen said. “They don’t have a clue,” he said.

Nelson Hurd, another resident, said his daughter had passed out, and the dispatcher at the county level wasn’t listening to the person who reported that medical emergency.

“I think we need to keep dispatch right here in town,” Hurd said.

The two incidents occurred within the last two weeks, Korhonen said.

The change in dispatching was instituted last fall, when a new law went into effect preventing answering point dispatchers from transferring emergency medical calls to uncertified centers, Livermore Falls Police Chief Ernest Steward Jr. said.

Steward said he is attempting to get the Livermore Falls center certified, which had not been required before the new law took effect. And though never certified itself, Steward said, the department had employed several certified dispatchers.

When public safety answering points were established, Livermore Falls had tried to become one since it is at the northern end of Androscoggin County, fire Chief Ken Jones said. And the state is now trying to eliminate more public safety answering points by consolidating further, he said.

“It’s a shame all these municipalities are losing dispatch centers,” Jones said, noting the local dispatchers know the town and its residents and the emergency responders work together well.

Selectman Louise Chabot asked Town Manager Martin Puckett and Steward to check into the incidents residents reported on Tuesday.