Think before you dial

From the archive, first published Friday 9th Mar 2007.

Have you heard the one about the Essex resident who phoned for an ambulance because he had an emergency while in bed?

The "emergency" turned out to be a spot of pillow-plumping.

Poor joke this may be, but it is even less amusing considering this 999 call meant valuable resources were spent dealing with a situation which was far from an emergency.

Sadly, these ridiculous calls are not as rare as they should be. Couple this with the fact there has been a five per cent year-on-year increase in the number of ambulance call-outs in Essex in recent years and these non-urgent calls are far from a laughing matter.

However, the ambulance service in Essex is confident it will secure funding next month to finance a new scheme to end highly-trained ambulance crews going out on pointless calls.

At the moment about a third of calls to the ambulance service in Essex are category A (life-threatening), about 40 per cent category B (serious, but not life-threatening) and the rest are category C (non-serious).

It is these non-serious calls ambulance chiefs want to be dealt with by a new clinical support desk within the control room. Already being run on an ad hoc basis in Essex, 999 calls which are non-serious will be passed to a care practitioner to find out the best way to sort the caller's problem - be it telling a person to make an appointment with their GP or practice nurse or contacting social services on their behalf.

As the ambulance's chief operating officer for Essex Paul Leaman explained: "People often default to 999 because at the time they think it's an emergency."

But this should not deter people - especially the elderly and those living alone - from calling 999.

With ambulances having up to an hour to respond to non-serious calls, Mr Leaman says people should take that time to consider if an ambulance really is necessary.

"We want people to think before they ring 999," stressed Mr Leaman.

It is also about people taking a greater responsibility in making sure they do not run out of their medication. Mr Leaman has lost count of the number of people who have a medication emergency during bank holidays.

While the county's ambulance crews are meeting their response targets for life-threatening and serious calls, educating the public about when and when not to call 999 is an ongoing campaign.

The Ambulance Service Union says one of the reasons emergency calls have risen nationally is changes to doctors' out-of-hours cover.

In Essex, it seems some people are using the ambulance crews to bypass primary care to get seen quicker - despite their condition not being urgent.

They may have to wait 24 hours to see their GP for a problem which is not serious, but if they call 999 they will get an ambulance within one hour and then be seen within four hours at the hospital A and E department.

With a new clinical support desk this should become a thing of the past.

Mr Leaman thinks the other reasons why there has been an increase in the number of 999 calls is due to people living longer and therefore getting sicker and perhaps people moving to this country from abroad are not fully aware of how the health care system works.

A recent British Heart Foundation campaign encouraging people to dial 999 if they started suffering from chest pains has also been blamed for the rise in 999 call-outs.

However, while this did lead to an increase in calls from people suffering with chest pains, it is a campaign the county's paramedics wholly support.

What the ambulance service doesn't want is people with genuine emergencies to hesitate calling 999 - and genuine emergencies do not include pillow-plumping.

Top ten 999 calls mades to ambulance crews in Essex

1. A caller dialled 999 to apologise for being a pest caller the day before when he had called 999 numerous times.

2. Staff at a care home phoned wanting an ambulance to take them to their job interviews at a hospital.

3. I've just caught my finger in a door and my nail is coming off - can I have an ambulance please?

4. Can you call me a cab? I'm out of credit on my mobile phone.

5. Make me toast.

6. Heat up my Pot Noodle.

7. Plump up my pillows.

8. Pick up my bar of chocolate.

9. Change the channel on my TV. I can't be bothered to get up from the chair.

10. Intoxicated people walk up to ambulances and ask: Can you give me a lift home please?'

Tally of 999 calls: the number of 999 ambulance calls in Essex

2001/2 - 151,096

2002/3 - 152,145

2003/4 - 164,357

2004/5 - 182,478

2005/6 - 195,970

2006/7 - 173,066 (not including February and March figures)