By Mark Aitken
The Daily Record & Sunday Mail
EDINBURGH, Scotland — Six hoax calls a day are being being made every day to the Scottish ambulance service, figures show.
The ambulance service received a record 2422 bogus calls in 2011-12, bringing the total to more than 7000 in three years.
Over the three years, 2678 ambulances were despatched to the hoax calls.
The figures were obtained by the Scottish Lib Dems, who called for a public awareness campaign about the dangers of hoax calls.
Their health spokesperson Alison McInnes said: “Over 7000 hoax calls in three years are no joke for Scotland’s emergency services.
“Each hoax call must be answered. It’s an extraordinary waste of our emergency services time and resources. “Nearly half of hoax calls were then attended to by our ambulance service.
“At a time when NHS resources are already stretched to the limits, people will be disappointed to learn that each year the ambulance service has to attend nearly a thousand hoax call-outs.”
McInnes called for the Scottish government to launch an awareness campaign.
She said: “We need to see a strong message which makes clear that hoax calls are dangerous, wasteful and thoughtless.”
An Ambulance Service spokesman said: “Our crews respond to over 600,000 incidents every year.
“Anyone who calls 999 without a genuine need is potentially putting lives at risk by tying up valuable resources that could be needed to respond to a life threatening call.”
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