Call for prosecutions over ‘scandalous’ misuse of ambulances as ‘taxi service’ in Kerry

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

A Kerry councillor has slammed the “complete misuse and abuse” of the county’s ambulance service as pressure mounts on the strained service.

Councillor Angie Baily reported people using ambulances as a “taxi service” as well as for minor injuries like “dropping a can of Budweiser on their toe”.

“It’s absolutely scandalous,” said Cllr Baily at a council meeting this week, “it really makes my blood boil.”

She said her recent experience with the service was “phenomenal” as paramedics arrived within 16 minutes of her call to help her unwell grandmother.

They were “absolutely fantastic”, she added, when they arrived back to report her grandmother’s status in hospital.

However, staff reported widespread abuse of the system, highlighting the regular occurrence of people using ambulances as a “taxi service”.

They alleged people often ring ambulances at night if they can’t get a taxi and will be transported to hospital, only to immediately leave and walk the rest of the way home.

“Taking an ambulance out of circulation can waste 40 minutes which delays ambulances and puts people and lives at risk,” said Cllr Baily.

It is currently a criminal offence to knowingly call an ambulance without good reason, with the potential of fines or even jail time, but prosecutions are rare.

The national ambulance service received more than 250 hoax 999 calls in the first 10 months of 2024, diverting resources away from genuine emergencies.

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Concerns over response times in Cork and Kerry have been raised previously, and Cllr Baily highlighted the abuse of the system as exacerbating this problem.

“Our ambulance services are under pressure,” she said.

“They deserve a system that supports them and protects their time and makes sure they are available for a genuine emergency… they deserve to be heroes at the place where they need to be saving lives.”

She called for Kerry County Council to write to the justice minister and other agencies to implement stronger measures to address the misuse of emergency ambulance resources and “bring proper penalties onto those who commit these absolutely awful crimes”.

Cllr Baily suggested establishing a dedicated national telephone service for acute, non-urgent medical needs as a means of redirecting non-emergency cases away from frontline ambulance crews.

She also said people needed to be made more aware of what situations warrant a call out, when small measures such as “putting a plaster on your big toe or sticking it in a bowl of ice” could be made instead.