Revealed: Yorkshire Ambulance Service hit by nearly 6,000 hoax calls in challenging times

The scale of the problem is such that it is estimated more than 1,000 hours of valuable response time has been wasted, potentially impacting on patients in genuine need of urgent medical treatment.

Fresh figures obtained by Medical Negligence Assist found that ambulance crews in the region have wasted a total of 1,133 hours responding to 5,980 hoax calls to the service since 2021.

In addition, the data reveals that ambulance crews made a total of 3,584 face-to-face responses to calls that turned out to be time-wasting hoaxes.

The findings come at a particularly challenging time for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service which saw it issue a warning ahead of the busy Christmas period urging the public to “use the ambulance service responsibly through the challenging winter months.”

Between April 2021 and March 2022, the service received 2,257 hoax calls, and responded to 1,381 hoax incidents face-to-face, wasting a total of 426 hours and 42 minutes of the service’s valuable time.

The following year, 2,087 calls were made as well as 1,165 incidents which resulted in an in-person response from YAS crews.

The total time spent responding to the hoax calls was 329 hours and 48 minutes.

In 2023/24, a further 1,636 were received and 1,038 more face-to-face responses which proved to be malicious, wasting a total of 376 hours and 46 minutes.

Speaking before Christmas, Nick Smith, Chief Operating Officer for Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: “We are already seeing system-wide increases in demand, largely due to winter-related illnesses like flu and respiratory problems, adverse weather and a busier night-time economy.

"This will undoubtedly rise further over the next few weeks.

"The public can help us by knowing when to call 999 and when not to.

"If someone is seriously ill or injured, you should call 999 immediately.

"If not, please consider other healthcare options.”

The data was gathered by Medical Negligence Assist via FOI requests to NHS Ambulance Services.

More data: https://www.medicalnegligenceassist.co.uk/research-and-statistics-on-ambulance-hoax-calls

Information on Medical Negligence Assist: https://www.medicalnegligenceassist.co.uk/