Hoax calls to Scottish ambulance service wasted 1,700 hours as 'malicious' pranksters blasted
dailyrecord.co.ukHoax calls wasted more than 1,700 hours of ambulance service staff time in the last eight years, according to new figures. A total of 1,710 hours of resource time were spent dealing with malicious calls between January 2014 and the end of September 2022.
The data was released by the Scottish Ambulance Service to the Liberal Democrats in a freedom of information request. During the year to September 30, just over 133 hours were spent on malicious calls.Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the ambulance service needed more resources amid winter pressures on the NHS.He said: "Every call handler tied up dealing with a malicious call is one who is unavailable to help save a life elsewhere.
The service deals with hundreds of thousands calls every year but these figures show that a small number of malicious individuals are conspiring to make their jobs harder than they need to be."It has wasted 1,710 hours of their time.
I fear this winter will be the hardest winter the NHS and its staff have ever known. The Scottish Government needs to educate the public about the consequences of wasting call handlers' time.
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