The UK ambulance service is urging the public to refrain from calling for non-urgent matters as its resources are stretched thin. Last year, 15% of the 426,000 calls made to the service—roughly 175 a day—were deemed non-emergency, with some of them not even health-related.
Among the calls were requests for help with minor issues, like a chipped tooth (“it’s starting to throb”), a bloody toe (“I’ve cut my little nail”), and a person who had stuck their finger in an electrical socket but appeared fine (“I’m worried that I could be electrocuted”).
One memorable call came from a man reporting that his son’s pet alligator had escaped and was hiding under the sofa. “I asked if he’d been hurt, and he said, no, he was scared,” said dispatcher Emma Worrall. The man wanted paramedics to help corral the alligator. “I told him that we wouldn’t be sending an ambulance for something like that,” Worrall recounted. “And he said, ‘So you’re not going to send me any help until I get bit, is that right?’ I went, ‘That’s correct.’”
In another instance, a caller was locked out of their house and needed a heater after a power cut. Despite some unusual requests, Worrall emphasized, “We just ask everybody to find alternative pathways before phoning for an ambulance. The ambulance service is for those who are experiencing life-threatening problems.”
The South Western Ambulance Service also reported that over a quarter of the one million calls they received last year were non-emergency. These included calls from people looking for a lost walking stick, asking for help with a fall while already in the hospital, or complaining about nightmares.
William Lee, assistant operations director at South Western Ambulance, said, “Inappropriate calls tie up our emergency lines and divert valuable resources away from those in genuine need.” The ambulance service is reminding the public that emergency lines are for life-threatening situations where every minute matters.
