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Ambulance Services: Misuse

Asked by Mr Tanmanjeet Singh DhesiLabourDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 12 November 2024UIN 12730

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the impact on the NHS from individuals who repeatedly misuse emergency ambulance services.

Answered by Karin Smyth

Inappropriate calls to 999 for an ambulance can impact on the availability and timeliness of services in a real emergency. All ambulance trusts have policies to deal with inappropriate or vexatious calls, and to manage frequent callers.

NHS England delivers a number of nationwide National Health Service campaigns to support the public to access NHS services at the right time and in the right way.

Campaign resources are also made available for local NHS organisations and teams to use, and they are encouraged to use these to run their own local campaign activity.

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