“Hoax calls are no joke”

SCOTTISH AMBULANCE SERVICE: ‘LIVES ARE BEING PUT AT RISK‘

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has received more than 200 malicious hoax calls so far this year. 37 of these were in the NHS Lothian area.

Between January and August, a total of 219 malicious calls were received compared to 191 over the entire 2022.  

In 2021, there were 220 for the entire year and since 2017, there have been 2620 hoax calls.

This year’s malicious calls resulted in 236 vehicles being allocated, with crews spending 130 hours at these calls – an average of 33 minutes for each call.

In one of the calls, a person claimed they had been stabbed, only for the crew to arrive and find no sign of any patient.

Earlier this year, a woman was also fined £210 for making hoax calls to SAS, after calling ambulances when she did not require them.

Michael Dickson, SAS Chief Executive, said: “Anyone who calls 999 without a genuine need is putting lives at risk by diverting crews that could be needed to respond to a life-threatening incident.

“We work with the police to report malicious, or nuisance callers and encourage the public to help us. Hoax calls are no joke.”

The Greater Glasgow and Clyde area experienced the highest number of hoax calls (87), responsible for almost 40% of calls and 40 hours lost that are needed to respond to the public in need.

The Lothian region had the second highest number of calls at 37 and 24 hours wasted, while Lanarkshire had 22, wasting 13 hours.

Health Board*	Total number of calls	Total resource service time (minutes)	Avg. resource service time
Ayrshire & Arran	18	594:03	33:00
Borders	4	87:48	21:57
Dumfries and Galloway	3	137:23	45:48
Fife	6	179:33	29:56
Forth Valley	6	242:00	40:20
Grampian	14	390:12	27:52
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	87	2431:53	27:57
Highland	15	449:16	29:57
Lanarkshire	22	817:53	37:11
Lothian	37	1457:10	39:23
Tayside	20	864:52	43:15
Western Isles	1	11:52	11:52

*Health boards with no data have not been included.