Man who faked chest pains for a lift to the shops among hoax 999 calls

A man who called 999 claiming chest pain because he wanted a lift to the shops was among hoax and non-emergency calls to an ambulance service in one 24-hour period.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) staff took 2,522 emergency calls from 9am on August 24 to the same time the following day. Only 240 of those calls were life-threatening and 10 were classed as hoaxes, with 1,894 ambulances being dispatched.

Hoax calls made during the 24-hour period included one hoaxer calling all emergency services to a non-existent 'incident' in Sheffield, and a child hoax caller reporting a patient not breathing in Sowerby Bridge.

Non-emergencies

Of the non-emergency calls made, one man rang to ask for a body scan 'for no apparent reason', one person reported a life-threatening emergency for a banged toe and a woman in Sheffield rang because she had toothache.

The service used Twitter to highlight the problems it faces and the importance of using the service appropriately. The tweets can be viewed using the hashtag #YAS247.

At 10.30pm on 24 August, staff tweeted: 'At a job in Sheffield for a male with chest pains turns out he only wanted a lift to Meadowhall & had no money #notataxiservice.'

And at 2.08am on 25 August, another tweet read: 'Attended an intoxicated male in Rotherham when we arrived he ran off shouting "I'm Rupert the bear" #notrequired #happybankholiday.'

Genuine callers

Genuine emergency calls reported on the Twitter feed included road accidents, a person who had severed two fingers in a combine harvester, someone rescued from the sea, a six-year-old boy who broke his arm after falling off monkey bars and a man who was knocked unconscious during a burglary.

Pauline Archibald, head of service central delivery for YAS, said: 'We will always respond to people with serious or life-threatening illnesses or injuries that need time-critical medical assistance. However, not all the 999 calls we receive are an emergency.

'We hope people will see how busy we are and consider using other healthcare providers in the community for less serious illnesses or injuries.'

The service said it expected to take around 7,500 calls over the bank holiday weekend. On average, call handlers receive around 1,900 calls per day, with around 250 of those being life-threatening.

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