** Hoax calls to UK ambulance service in Southwest taxing already overstretched medics
UNITED KINGDOM NEWS
** Ambulance medics in Avon are apparently struggling to keep up with EMS help hails, with a recent report saying the organization fielded 800 hoax calls last year alone. That is the word from Pirate FM (April 25) which said the South West Ambulance Service Trust (SWAST), which is already challenged by lagging response times, is now warning the public bogus 999 calls can put the broader public at risk. A SWAST spokesman said the organization will seek to prosecute those who abuse the system. The service attends to 900,000 EMS calls per year. The news of the abuse also comes at a time when violence against medics is on an upswing. A union study found less than 1 per cent of attacks on ambulance personnel resulted in the offender being given a prison sentence. The assaults involved stabbings, patients biting medics, and patients or bystanders threatening to run over medics with a car.
