UK ambulance service pleads with public to stop making non-urgent calls

The UK's ambulance service is pleading with the public to stop phoning them with non-emergencies.

With public health services stretched thin in the U.K., there is no shortage of anecdotes about people suffering from true health emergencies who wait hours for medical care — whether from paramedics or a hospital doctor. But the UK ambulance service said 15% of its 426,000 calls last year — 175 a day — were not urgent. Some weren't even health-related and were far from being matters of life and death.

There was a call about a chipped tooth ("it's starting to throb"), a bloody toe ("I’ve cut my little nail on the toe and I’ve nipped across the top of it.") and a person who stuck their finger in an electrical socket who appeared to be fine ("I’m worried that I could be electrocuted").

Then there was the call Emma Worrall took last year that she won't soon forget.

“I remember saying ‘alligator?’ and my call-taker supervisor just looked at me and was like, ‘What is going on in your call?’” Worrall said.

As a dispatcher in a busy call centre in Wales, Worrall has to be unflappable, patient and able to efficiently handle the most stressful calls in which a delay of seconds or minutes could be the difference between life and death.

She understands that some people have a different gauge of what is life-threatening and an emergency. But it's still frustrating when someone phones the emergency number to say they’re locked out of their house and cold or their dog jumped in a river and won’t swim back — calls she also fielded.

“We just ask everybody to find alternative pathways before phoning for an ambulance,” she said. “The ambulance service is for those who are experiencing life-threatening problems.”

Worrall’s craziest call came one