Quarter of young Londoners would dial 999 if they couldn’t see a GP, study shows

One in 10 Londoners would call 999 for an emergency ambulance if their child got their hand stuck in a jam jar, according to a new report
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Ross Lydall @RossLydall19 September 2018

One in three Londoners would call 999 for an ambulance even if there was no need for urgent hospital care, a survey revealed today.

The figure rose to more than half among 18 to 24-year-olds, prompting calls for young Londoners to be better educated in how to access non-emergency healthcare.

Four in 10 Londoners mistakenly believed that calling 999 would get them seen faster at A&E, and one in 10 said they would call an ambulance if a child got a hand stuck in a jam jar.

The findings were published today by the London Assembly’s health committee as part of an ongoing investigation into the challenges facing the London Ambulance Service.

It is the country’s busiest ambulance service and receives more than 1.9 million calls a year. But demand is soaring — calls are up 13 per cent year on year — and there are persistent staff shortages, meaning increasingly it has to decide which calls to prioritise.

The most serious emergencies, such as cardiac arrest, are reached in seven minutes but it can take two and a half hours to attend lower-priority cases.

Today’s report, based on 105 responses to an online focus group and polling of 1,013 people by Populus, found one in five respondents had called an ambulance in the last six months, but many had done so “unnecessarily”.

Almost a quarter of young Londoners said they would call an ambulance if they could not get a GP appointment, while nearly one in five of Londoners of all ages said they were unaware of the NHS 111 non-emergency 24-hour phone line. More than 90 per cent of respondents accepted ambulances should only be used in emergencies.

The report said the LAS, Mayor and NHS should promote “informed and responsible use” of the ambulance service and make people aware of the alternatives to dialling 999.

Onkar Sahota, Labour chairman of the assembly health committee, said: “Sadly, the 999 system can be abused by those with spurious issues but it also has to cover for problems in other parts of the healthcare system. We need to work together to make the best use of this precious resource.”

LAS chief executive Garrett Emmerson said: “The latest poll of Londoners shows we need to remind people of all ages to use us wisely and only call 999 in a genuine emergency.”

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