Ambulance please... for a DNA test on my cheating partner
A MAN dialled 999 and asked for paramedics – demanding they carry out a DNA test on his ‘cheating’ partner.
The bizarre call was blasted by ambulance service bosses for wasting the valuable time of an emergency call handler.
It was just one of 6,000 calls received by North West Ambulance Service on New Year’s Day.
The man says he’s ‘just ringing because my partner has cheated on me.’ He is repeatedly asked by the NWAS call handler if the patient is breathing.
Eventually the man admits that ‘everybody is okay’ – then says he wants an ambulance to come to his house to carry out a DNA test on his partner, saying they have ‘cheated on me.’
He’s told the ambulance service is for emergencies only and doesn’t ‘do DNA tests,’ before the operator hangs up.
The call was made as the service was dealing with an increase of more than a third in the usual daily number of calls due to the busy New Year period.
NWAS crews respond to 3,000 incidents every day across five counties – Greater Manchester, Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside – and the maximum number of ambulances on the road serving the population of over seven million people is 329.
It equates to one ambulance per 21 thousand people.
Bosses said calls like it ‘waste our precious time and resources.’
A North West Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We received almost 6,000 999 calls on New Year’s Day – 33 per cent more than usual. Needless to say, we didn’t send this man an ambulance but when we receive calls for anything other than a serious emergency, it wastes our precious time and resources. This is an extreme example of using the service inappropriately, however we do often receive 999 calls for incidents that do not require an emergency ambulance and we urge people to think twice before they dial.
“When it’s less serious than 999, NHS 111 Online is now available in the North West which allows patients to get urgent healthcare advice online. Local pharmacies are also really useful along with GPs and walk-in centres.
“Choosing the correct care can help to save lives as it frees our emergency medical dispatchers up to be able to help patients who are in a life-threatening condition.”