Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) is appealing for people to ‘think before you call’ as the final preparations are made for what is traditionally the busiest night of the year - New Year’s Eve.
Many calls are received from patients who do not need to go to hospital. 999 calls for minor illnesses and injuries can potentially put those with life-threatening illnesses and injuries at greater risk by using valuable resources inappropriately.
The appeal comes as the ambulance trust thanks its staff after a very busy Christmas when over 4,100 emergency incidents were responded to.
Stephen Segasby, Deputy Director of Operations at YAS, said: “Our staff have done an incredible job over the busy Christmas period looking after thousands of patients, many of whom were very poorly and needed our help as quickly as possible but when people use our emergency medical service inappropriately it ties up our resources and means we can’t get to those who really need us as quickly as we would like to. We would appeal to everyone to think before you call and only dial 999 when someone is in need of time-critical life-saving help.”