Hoax calls waste 30,000 ‘precious’ minutes for ambulance crews

Hoax calls have cost ambulance staff almost 30,000 “precious” minutes in the past five years.

New figures from the Scottish Ambulance Service show 28,107 minutes of ambulance crew time have been lost to malicious calls since 2012/13.

The figures were released after a freedom of information request from Scottish Liberal Democrats and revealed the number of hoax calls has doubled since 2012.

Lib Dem health spokesperson Alex Cole-hamilton MSP said those making hoax calls were “a threat to peo- 0 Figures showed how much time was wasted for crews ple in urgent need”. He said: “The service attends around 700,000 call outs a year and staff are busier and busier.

“Minutes can be precious when responding to incidents so to lose almost 30,000 of them must be immensely frustrating for the staff involved. These figures show this malicious behaviour is a persistent issue. We need to ensure the Scottish Ambulance Service and other agencies have the resources they need to educate people over the dangers that malicious calls pose.”

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “Anyone who calls 999 without a genuine need is potentially putting lives at risk by tying up valuable resources that could be needed to respond to a life-threatening call. When appropriate, malicious or nuisance callers are reported to the police.”