Yorkshire Air Ambulance has revealed it was the victim of 14 hoax calls in the last financial year — and the number looks set to rise this year.
The charity, which provides rapid emergency treatment to people in Yorkshire, responds to more than 1,300 incidents a year, an average of four a day.
But in the financial year to March 31 2021, it responded to 14 hoax calls. In the current calendar year, it had received 10 hoax calls by May 10.
Matt Syrat, clinical operations manager at Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said such calls can stop crews attending incidents with people in genuine danger leading to potentially “devastating consequences”.
He added:
“There is no way of knowing if a 999 call is a hoax when it comes in. We have to treat every call as if it is an emergency situation and respond rapidly.
“There is nothing more frustrating for our crews than landing at a scene and establishing that the call was in fact a hoax. Not only has it wasted our time and put ours and the public’s life at risk, but there will always be other emergency services involved too.
“Committing all these emergency services to one hoax call could risk us not reaching a real emergency fast enough and puts other lives at risk.”
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Of the 14 hoax calls in the last financial year, four were responded to by Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s rapid response vehicles whilst the other 10 involved air ambulances being dispatched.
Ten of the bogus call outs were from West Yorkshire. The other four were from South Yorkshire.
