Yorkshire Air Ambulance hits out at time wasters after revealing number of hoax calls made to the charity last year

More than a dozen hoax phone calls were made to the Yorkshire Ambulance (YAA) last year, the charity has revealed as it warned of the dangers.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance received 14 hoax phone calls last year, the charity has revealedYorkshire Air Ambulance received 14 hoax phone calls last year, the charity has revealed
Yorkshire Air Ambulance received 14 hoax phone calls last year, the charity has revealed

The organisation was victim to 14 calls in the last financial year from people wasting time, costing them thousands as well as valuable time which could be spent saving lives.

The YAA responds to more than 1,300 incidents a year – an average of four a day.

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In the last financial year, between April 1 2020 and March 31 2021, the service responded to 14 hoax calls, and in 2021 so far up to May 10, the charity has responded to 10.

The bogus call outs were mainly in West (10) and South Yorkshire (four) with October 2020 and January 2021 being the busiest months with three hoax calls each month.

Matt Syrat, Clinical Operations Manager, said they treat every call as an emergency situation and hoaxes waste their time and put lives at risk.

“There is no way of knowing if a 999 call is a hoax when it comes in," he said.

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"We have to treat every call as if it is an emergency situation and respond rapidly. When a call comes in there are no significant indicators that it might be a hoax as the caller is asked a series of questions about the emergency by the 999 call handler – that doesn’t become apparent until emergency responders arrive at the scene to find no emergency.”

He added: “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 – the ambulance service, police and even the fire service depending on the alleged nature of the hoax.

"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. Then there is the cost of calling everyone out and tying up our resources.

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"None of us can comprehend why someone would want to do this to the emergency services.”

Of the 14 bogus calls to YAA last year, four were responded to by Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs) and 10 incidents involved the aircraft being dispatched.

“We would urge people to never even contemplate making a hoax 999 call as it could have devastating consequences,” Mr Syrat said.

"Every time our aircraft is dispatched to a hoax incident, it prevents us from attending genuine emergencies where our care could be the difference between life and death for someone’s loved one.

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“Then there is the cost of calling everyone out and tying up our resources. None of us can comprehend why someone would want to do this to the emergency services.”

The work of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance can be seen on the TV documentary series Helicopter ER which is broadcast on the Really channel.