'Too much kebab': Ambulance service reveals inappropriate 999 calls

‘Too much kebab’: Ambulance service reveals inappropriate 999 calls

Jan 23, 2024

A person called for an ambulance after eating too much kebab, a service has revealed.

Further 999 calls were made in Wales because someone had misplaced their false teeth, and another had their hand stuck in a letterbox.

A lost voice and a ring stuck on a finger prompted other inappropriate calls to the Welsh Ambulance Service.

The service had 414,149 calls last year and of those, 68,416 were not a life-or-death emergency, it said.

That’s an average of 188 calls a day which has prompted the trust to remind people only to dial 999 if someone is seriously ill or injured.

Here are some transcripts of calls made to the ambulance service in Wales over the past year.

Too much kebab

Operator: Tell me exactly what’s happened.

Caller: Yesterday evening, we had some kebab, and I might have had a little bit more than I’m used to, then this morning, I’ve had a very painful stomach.

Hand stuck in letterbox

Operator: Is the patient awake?

Caller: Yeah, it’s me, my hand’s stuck in the door.

Operator: Is the door locked at the moment?

Caller: Yeah, it’s locked. Mam! No, my hand’s stuck in the f*****g letterbox.

Operator: How old are you?

Caller: Open the door, my hand’s stuck!

Missing false teeth

Caller: I have a bottom part denture, and I went to clean my teeth and I said, ‘Where’s my false teeth?’ This sounds crazy… but I don’t know what else to do. Could I have swallowed my false teeth?

Operator: So, you don’t know where your false teeth are?

Andy Swinburn, executive director of paramedicine, said “inappropriate calls put additional strain on an already over-stretched service”.

“Our plea to the public is to apply your common sense – most people know the difference between a real emergency and something that is uncomfortable, painful or irritating but not life-threatening,” he said.

Executive director of operations, Lee Brooks, said the service needed the public “to take some ownership and accountability for their health and wellbeing” and that NHS services were “stretched beyond measure”.

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“We know it’s confusing to access NHS services – you don’t know what’s open when and which healthcare professional is best placed to help,” chief executive Jason Killens added.

“Longer-term, our ambition is to play a strengthened role in the broader NHS system to help patients navigate the right pathway to the most appropriate service, and that includes non-urgent health queries too.”

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