TIMEWASTERS

The woman is among scores of bogus callers who are wasting paramedics' time and £3.7m a year of taxpayers' money, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Hoaxers often claim they are suffering chest pains or other serious symptoms to make sure an ambulance is sent out.

But when it arrives the crew finds it is something minor that could be dealt with at a doctor's surgery or by ringing NHS Direct or not even a medical matter at all.

Today Hampshire Ambulance Service launches a campaign to encourage people not to dial 999 unless it is a life-threatening emergency.

Posters are currently being distributed to GP surgeries, pharmacies, libraries, nightclubs, pubs, universities and community and leisure centres in a bid to drive home the message.

Claire Severgnini, chief executive of Hampshire Ambulance Service, said: "I think it's about heightening people's awareness as to what the ambulance service is there for when people dial 999.

"It's actually there to answer life-threatening incidents. We have to rely on members of the public for information about incidents.

"It's calling upon the common sense of the public."

The trust currently receives around 350 emergency life-threatening 999 calls every day - with more over weekends and during bank holiday periods.

Around 20 per cent of those are inappropriate or hoax calls, putting an extra strain on the already stretched service.

Mike Cassidy, director of patient services for the trust, said: "It costs the trust approximately £3.7m every year for ambulances and crews to answer these unnecessary calls. We are not just talking about hoax calls, but people request ambulances for lots of different reasons including toothache, small cuts and other minor ailments.

"While we are dealing with calls of this nature we're not available to get to the life-threatening emergencies, which puts lives of other patients at risk."

Mrs Severgnini stressed they did not want to discourage people from dialling 999 when they genuinely needed it.

But she added: "If you don't need us, the person who's lying on the floor having a heart attack does.

"Please, when you're dialling that number, think about who you might be taking that service away from."

Clinical services manager for Hythe and Totton ambulance stations Debbie Ingram said it was also frustrating for the crew to be called out unnecessarily.

She added: "Someone could easily have a heart attack and die because we're dealing with a broken finger.

"The way I look at it is it could be my parents or my family."

Anyone with minor ailments can call NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or visit one of Southampton's two walk-in centres in Howard's Grove, Shirley and Bitterne Health Centre.

THE TOP TEN UNNECESSARY CALL-OUTS TO 999:

1. One person called for an emergency ambulance and paramedics discovered when they arrived at the address that the caller could not sleep because they were scared after watching a horror film.

2. Crew arrived at one 999 call to find the caller had dropped their remote control down the side of their settee.

3. Another caller phoned to say a man had collapsed with leg problems. It turned out that he was too tired to walk home and wondered if the crew could give him a lift.

4. A pregnant woman called for an ambulance but when the crew arrived she only wanted to know if she could take a particular remedy for her cold.

5. A 999 call was received from a woman who said she was bleeding. Crew turned up to find she was menstruating. The woman said she had no money to buy sanitary products and said she had hoped paramedics carried them on their ambulance.

6. A call was received from a lady with a medical emergency. Crews arrived to discover she could not get a taxi home from the supermarket and wanted a lift.

7. An elderly lady dialled 999 saying she was diabetic and was having a fit. But when the ambulance turned up, the pensioner confessed she was drunk and wanted to go to hospital because she was lonely.

8. The crew turned up to another 999 call to find someone who needed help getting to the toilet.

9. One caller dialled 999 to say he had breathing problems. When the crew arrived, the caller actually wanted someone to get his medication ready for him.

10. One caller dialled 999 and the crew turned up to find they had phoned for an ambulance because they had discovered a dead deer in the road.