Taxi requests and sore throats block 999 lines

An ambulance service is asking people to think twice before dialling 999 during the festive period after a spate of recent calls for non-urgent problems.

A 30-year-old man from Northfleet, Kent, who rang the emergency number because he needed a taxi is just one of many calls which have frustrated South East Coast Ambulance Service staff over the past six months.

Others included one from a 30-year-old man from Tunbridge Wells who had a sore throat, one from a 47-year-old woman from Herne Bay who had a ring stuck on her finger and no money to pay for a taxi to take her to hospital and one from a 20-year-old man in Sevenoaks whose plaster was too tight.

South East Coast Ambulance Service chief executive Paul Sutton said: "We see the number of calls during the festive period increase because there are a lot more people out shopping and partying.

"We do not want to stop people from enjoying themselves. However, we would ask them to think before dialling 999.

"The ambulance service is there to provide an emergency service to those people who require urgent medical attention at hospital and cannot transport themselves. We are not a taxi service.

"The idea that you can jump the queue of a busy A&E department if you arrive by ambulance is simply a modern myth."

South East Coast Ambulance Service was formed in July following the merger of Kent, Surrey and Sussex Ambulance Trusts.

The control centre in Kent took 17,038 calls in December 2005 compared with 15,163 calls the previous month, Surrey took 11,180 calls compared with 9,987 and Sussex took 17,979 calls compared with 15,964.

In Kent, paramedics deal with some calls to establish whether an ambulance is most suitable for a patient.

Last year they dealt with 16,400 calls, of which 35% did not need an ambulance or were referred to alternative healthcare providers.

Here are some of the other calls the Kent control centre received during the six-month period:

::A 34-year-old man in Ashford with a sore throat wanted an ambulance because his GP surgery was closed.

:: A 32-year-old man with a foot injury in Canterbury rang after falling five days earlier;

:: A 25-year-old woman in Chatham needed transport home;

:: A 54-year-old woman in Dover had an itchy wrist;

:: A 19-year-old woman in Folkestone had stubbed her toe;

:: A 26-year-old man in Gravesend had lost his medication;

:: Two 25-year-old men, from Maidstone and Ramsgate, had a cut finger;

:: A 21-year-old man in Northfleet needed a filling;

:: A 43-year-old man in Sittingbourne's little finger nail had come off;

:: A woman in her 70s in Sheppey had no one to prepare her food.

Copyright Press Association 2006