Claire Reid
A UK ambulance has revealed some of the ridiculous calls it received via 999 including one in which a member of the public complained they’d eaten too much kebab.
The Welsh Ambulance Service has called on the general public to use ‘common sense’ when calling for an ambulance.
Most of us understand that ambulances are reserved for urgent and life threatening emergencies - but every year ambulance services across the UK have to deal with a number of calls that are far from serious.
The Welsh Ambulance Service had 414,149 and of these 68,416 were not a life-or-death emergency, it said.
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The service shared three such calls with Sky News, including one from a person who told the call handler: “Yesterday evening, we had some kebab, and I might have had a little bit more than I’m used to, then this morning, I've had a very painful stomach.”
In another call, the call handler asked: “Is the patient awake?”
To which the caller responded: “Yeah, it's me, my hand's stuck in the door.”
When asked if the door was locked, they replied: “Yeah.”
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Before shouting: “Mam! No, my hand's stuck in the f**king letterbox.”
A third caller thought it was worthy of the emergency services' time to ask: “I have a bottom part denture, and I went to clean my teeth and I said, 'Where's my false teeth?' This sounds crazy… but I don't know what else to do. Could I have swallowed my false teeth?”
The service is now urging people to only call for an ambulance if they really need one.
Andy Swinburn, Executive Director of Paramedicine, said: "Inappropriate calls put additional strain on an already over-stretched service.
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"Our plea to the public is to apply your common sense - most people know the difference between a real emergency and something that is uncomfortable, painful or irritating but not life-threatening.”
While, Executive Director of Operations, Lee Brooks, said the service needed the public ‘to take some ownership and accountability for their health and wellbeing’ and that NHS services were ‘stretched beyond measure’.
Chief Executive Jason Killens added: "We know it's confusing to access NHS services - you don't know what's open when and which healthcare professional is best placed to help.
"Longer-term, our ambition is to play a strengthened role in the broader NHS system to help patients navigate the right pathway to the most appropriate service, and that includes non-urgent health queries too."