‘Don’t call an ambulance for a broken nail’

A BROKEN nail, a hand caught in a mousetrap, a dog in labour and shoes that were too tight.

These are just some of the bizarre excuses given for nuisance calls to the National Ambulance Service recently.

The NAS is appealing to the public not to make non-life-threatening calls to any emergency services.

In addition, Siptu’s health organiser, Paul Bell, said he thinks people who call an ambulance for a shaving cut, or similar, should be prosecuted.

It comes after paramedics revealed some of the non-emergency calls they have responded to.

One was for a woman reported as having bleeding that would not stop. The crew discovered ‘she was scratched after her cat and dog were fighting, and she broke it up’.

Another call was from a man who had got antibiotics from his GP for a cold. He rang saying that the tablets were not working.

Other ‘999’ calls that people requested an ambulance for include:

A woman in her 70s ‘trapped’ in her kitchen. The crew found she could not get her wellies off.

A man with sunburn, who was fully conscious and breathing but wanted an ambulance.

A woman with a dislocated shoulder after applying fake tan. A man whose new shoes for Christmas were too tight and hurting his feet. A man whose hand was stuck in a mousetrap, and a first-time mother who needed her baby winded. A child with worms. A caller who could not sleep and thought their house was haunted.

A broken fingernail. In 2014, the ambulance service was dispatched after a caller said there was a 14-year-old in labour. The crew found the ‘person’ in labour was the family dog.

Siptu’s Paul Bell said: ‘I have had crews in peak time responding to what turns out to be a cut from shaving. I believe people who make such calls should be prosecuted. ‘Some people think they will be treated first if they go to hospital in an ambulance. That is not true,’ he added.

The NAS has highlighted the danger of nuisance calls. A spokesman said: ‘Non-life-threatening calls can be time-consuming and may delay a genuine caller receiving timely medical assistance.’

The NAS says the service answers every 112/999 call it receives.

It revealed that, as part of a major improvement strategy, ‘there is an overhaul in emergency call taking and dispatch processes taking place’.

It said the NAS will examine behavioural patterns with regard to 112/999 calls and will take appropriate actions as required.’

‘Thought house was haunted’

FOR reasons that don’t require spelling out, the National Ambulance Service is one of the most important organisations in the country.

It is, by its very nature, on emergency call on a round-the-clock basis every single day of the year. Even under the most extreme pressure, though, its personnel are the very model of professionalism.

Anyone who has had dealings with ambulance crews will have been struck by their efficiency, courtesy and sheer dedication to the job. Against that backdrop, it is disappointing to learn the extent of the timewasting calls that they have to deal with.

According to details revealed yesterday, callers have dialled 999 and requested an ambulance for incidents as trivial as a broken fingernail. One man suffering from a cold wanted emergency assistance on the grounds that the antibiotics he had been prescribed just hours earlier weren’t working. Meanwhile, another man phoned in because his new shoes were too tight and hurting his feet. The list goes on and on.

It is, of course, tempting to see the comical side of these examples of gross stupidity. But the reality is that there is nothing remotely funny about it at all.

Even at the best of times, the NAS’s resources are stretched. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that every unnecessary call-out puts extra pressure on the system. Worse still, of course, is the potential threat to life. Any call-out over a minor complaint could result in a delayed response to a genuine emergency.

We all might imagine that knowing when it is appropriate to call the emergency number is a matter of basic common sense. But these examples demonstrate that there are people among us who are clearly unaware of the correct protocol.

Accordingly, two things need to be done. The first is the issuing of clear and unambiguous guidelines to outline the circumstances in which an ambulance should be called. The second is the introduction of sanctions for timewasters.