NHS reveals misuse of emergency services

NHS

NHS hospital and 999 teams have revealed some of the more unusual examples of why people call on our region’s emergency services.

The move is part of a campaign to get people to respect emergency services and reduce the growing pressure on A&E and 999 teams.

Examples include:

• 999 dialled for a patient who was continually coughing
• A patient attended complaining that her false nails were hurting her and asked that staff remove them.
• A man dialled 999 for a non-serious cut to the hand.
• A patient attended requesting that someone cut her toe nails as she could not get a chiropody appointment.
• Man dialled 999 as he was suffering from constipation, he was otherwise fit and well.
• A child was brought into the department by her mother after she had trodden in dog faeces and the mother could not bear to wipe it off. She requested that the Accident & Emergency staff cleaned the shoe.
• An alcohol dependent woman called 999 because she wanted to get drunk.

The number of people attending A&E continues to rise with A&E attendances up by 36,000 since April, compared to last year, and 999 calls up by 3,000.

Dr Mike Cheshire, Medical Director at NHS North West said: “We need to get back to the message that A&E and 999 services are for life-threatening and emergency conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, breathing problems and serious accidents. Our hospital A&E teams deal with some of the highest numbers of people who have life-threatening conditions such as heart-attacks, strokes and lung disease in the country. It is hard to believe that there are some people who think they can call 999 or go to A&E just because they have a splinter or have paint in their hair.”

Choose Well is a North West wide communications campaign that aims to get people to use the right NHS service. “We are fully behind the Choose Well campaign,” said Dr Cheshire. “We have to make sure that A&E and 999 services are free to treat people with life-threatening and serious conditions, such as heart-attacks, strokes and serious accidents.

“If we can stop the misuse of our A&E and 999 services and get more people to self-care for common complaints such as backache, minor sports injuries, this will go some way to easing the pressures on our emergency services.”