999 teams in Dorset held up by time-wasters

8:30am Friday 2nd January 2009

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BIZARRE, stupid and prank phone calls have diverted emergency resources from people with real problems.

Within just one shift earlier this week, staff at South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust dealt with a series of unusual incidents in Dorset.

One woman phoned for an ambulance saying her finger was sore because she had burst a blood blister.

Another woman phoned for an ambulance because her ankles were ‘making cracking noises.’ And a woman phoned 21 times for an ambulance from 2am onwards, claiming she was lonely, lost, and ‘felt funny’.

Trained staff who spoke to her several times referred her details to her GP, and a nurse sent to her door found the woman sleeping off the effects of a hard night’s boozing.

On Christmas Eve, a man wanted an ambulance after hurting his ankle in a bar while using a punch bag machine. On the same day, a man walked up to an ambulance station saying he had toothache and asked to be taken to hospital.

And a man called for an ambulance after he tried to climb a fence to get into a football pitch and cut his hand.

At 2am on Christmas Day, ambulance, fire and police emergency services wasted an hour after a man claimed he was in a property that was on fire and a seven-year-old girl was unconscious.

When they could find no fire at the address he gave, they phoned the man back and were given a second address and again found no fire.

The man then said he was in a car and gave a location but again the services could find no trace of him.

Ambulance staff also fielded calls from a 74-year-old woman who broke her wrist falling off a skateboard, and somebody said he had burned his throat while eating a Brussels sprout.

An ambulance spokesman said: “Unless your life is being threatened because of an illness, unless it is urgent, please don’t phone us.”