More than 11,000 malicious calls to ambulance service in past decade

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today warned that malicious calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service are putting lives at risk as he revealed that there have been more than 11,000 of these calls over the last decade.

A Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request to the service revealed that since 2014, ambulance staff have had to deal with 11,353 hoax calls. It also revealed that since 2020 they have spent more than 1,600 hours handling these calls.  

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

“Every call handler tied up in dealing with a malicious call is one who is unable to help save a life elsewhere.

“Across the NHS, staff are stretched to their limit. They simply cannot afford to deal with timewasters who are endangering the lives of others.

“The Scottish Government must educate the public about the consequences of wasting call handlers’ time. They must also ensure that the ambulance service has the resources and capacity it needs to attend call-outs as quickly as possible.”