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.
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.”
