These are just some of the inappropriate calls Illawarra residents have made to the emergency line in recent months.

NSW Ambulance Service zone manager Paul Tonge said these calls highlighted the need to further educate the community to ‘‘save triple-0 for saving lives’’.

Paramedics held up by hoax triple-0 calls

Mr Tonge welcomed this week’s report by the NSW Auditor-General which found many people had unrealistic expectations about the ambulance service.

‘‘A small proportion of the community think it’s acceptable to use the ambulance service as a taxi, to get their prescription filled or to get minor ailments attended to,’’ Mr Tonge said.

‘‘We’ve had calls recently from people suffering bad dreams, another wanted a pizza, another had been trying on shoes all day and had sore feet.

‘‘These aren’t hoax calls either – there’s a genuine failure by some people to understand what is an emergency and what’s not.’’

As part of the report released on Wednesday, Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat said paramedics should be allowed to say ‘‘no’’ – to refuse to transport patients who didn’t need hospital treatment.

‘‘It’s a positive recommendation by the Auditor-General but we would have to work out the safest way of being able to do that, of being able to say ‘no’,’’ Mr Tonge said.

The main thrust of the report looked at ambulance turnaround times at the state’s hospitals, and Wollongong Hospital fared well.

In the year to June 2012, 61.3 per cent of ambulance patients were offloaded at Wollongong Hospital within 30 minutes compared with 53.5 per cent in the previous 12 months.

Mr Tonge said the ambulance service had been working closely with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District to continue to improve turnaround times.

‘‘Over the last 12 months the health district, and Wollongong Hospital’s emergency department in particular, has given a real commitment to decreasing the time taken to transfer patients from the ambulance service to the care of the hospital,’’ he said.

‘‘This has been made possible through a number of initiatives like the use of treatment chairs for people who don’t need a full hospital bed, and through reconfiguring rooms and areas within the ED to help the patient flow.’’

Early intervention programs at aged care facilities, such as the Aged Care ED Avoidance Program, were also proving successful.

The ambulance service had also introduced initiatives including referring triple-0 calls, where appropriate, to Health Direct (1800 022 222), where registered nurses could give prompt advice on whether an ambulance, or other service, was required.

FOOLS’ ERRANDS

10 inappropriate reasons callers contacted a NSW ambulance:

 • Splinter under a fingernail

• Bed bugs

• Light globe needed changing

• Needed a new pharmacy prescription

• Grazed knee

• Stung by a bee

• Mascara in the eye

• Wanted blood pressure checked

• Already in one emergency department but wanted a ride to another one

• Wanted a transcript of last triple-0 call to satisfy bail conditions

 Source: NSW Auditor-General’s Report 2013