UK Ambulance Services Overrun with Outlandish Non-Emergency Calls, Including a Runaway Alligator
LONDON (AP) — The Welsh Ambulance Service is urging the public not to call 999 for non-emergencies — especially if the situation involves a runaway alligator.
With public health services across the UK under increasing strain, many people in real medical distress face lengthy delays while waiting for paramedic or hospital care. However, the Welsh Ambulance Service revealed that 15% of the 426,000 calls they received last year — around 175 calls each day — were not urgent. Some of these calls were far from health-related, and none of them involved life-threatening situations.
Among the more bizarre requests were calls about a throbbing chipped tooth (“it’s starting to throb”), a minor cut on a toe (“I’ve nipped across the top of it”), and even a person who stuck their finger into an electrical socket but appeared unharmed (“I’m worried I could be electrocuted”).
But the most memorable call for dispatcher Emma Worrall came when a man rang to report his son’s pet alligator had escaped and was hiding under the sofa.
“I remember saying ‘alligator?’ and my call-taker supervisor just looked at me and said, ‘What is going on in your call?’” Worrall recalled. As a dispatcher, Worrall is used to staying calm and composed in urgent situations where every second counts, but some calls can test her patience.
She understands that people may have different perceptions of what qualifies as an emergency. Still, it’s frustrating when callers seek help for issues such as being locked out of their house or needing assistance to retrieve a dog from a river.
“We just ask everyone to consider alternative solutions before dialing 999,” Worrall said. “The ambulance service is for those experiencing life-threatening emergencies.”
In the case of the alligator, the caller insisted paramedics should help him capture the reptile, even though no one had been injured. “I told him we wouldn’t be sending an ambulance for something like that,” Worrall said. “He asked if we wouldn’t send help until he got bitten, and I said, ‘That’s correct.’”
The Welsh Ambulance Service is not the only one dealing with inappropriate calls. The South Western Ambulance Service in England revealed that over a quarter of the more than 1 million calls they received last year were non-emergencies. These included a person asking for help finding a walking stick, a patient who had already fallen off a chair but was in the hospital, and a woman who complained about having a “horrendous nightmare.”
William Lee, assistant operations director at South Western Ambulance, stressed, “Emergency calls are for situations where minutes matter and lives are at risk. Inappropriate calls tie up our emergency lines and divert critical resources away from those who genuinely need help.”
After taking the alligator call, Worrall shared the story with her colleagues during a brief break, amused by the absurdity of it. “We had a little chat about it and then, yeah, back to work I went,” she said. “On to the next call.”