The Westcountry Ambulance Service are launching a campaign to stop people in the South West making “inappropriate” 999 calls.
The WAS says that 25% of calls they receive are not appropriate and means hundreds of hours are wasted.
Westcountry celebrity Noel Edmonds is backing the campaign.
Here are just a few of the calls that the WAS has received:
The lady who dials 999 regularly claiming chest pain and on arrival crews find she wants a hug
A man was scared of thunder and wouldn’t get off the phone until it had stopped, kept ringing back until storm ended
Male had collapsed and gone to see his GP. Given some pills and dialled 999 4 hours later to ask why they weren’t working
A couple called 999 to ask paramedics to come and fetch logs in from their shed
Call at 3am in Crediton as patient had a spot on the end of her finger
A man called 999 at 3pm as he couldn’t sleep
Recharge an electric key meter as ?patient? unable to get themselves to the garage
They have been asked to turn central heating down
Person unable to get out of chair, called 999 to get crew to turn kettle off
Person lonely, frequent caller to 999
6 men got beaten up in Barnstaple and got on a bus to Bideford. When there they were refused entry to a nightclub. They called 999 for an ambulance. When crew arrived the 6 only wanted paramedics to clean them up so they could get into the night club
Man on holiday who had forgotten his medication. He called 999 to ask what he should do.
Toothache
Lost remote control
Patient called with serious injury. When crew decided to take him to a different hospital, the patient miraculously recovered
Broken finger nail