Cork and Kerry ambulance service sees ‘shocking’ 50 per cent rise in aborted calls
The KerrymanAmbulance call stops have increased by nearly 50pc in Kerry and Cork as a local councillor reports abuse of emergency services.
New figures show the number of patients treated on the scene by the national ambulance service has risen six-fold since 2022, data which Kerry Councillor Angie Baily described as “shocking”.
Cllr Baily previously reported people using ambulances as a “taxi service” as well as for minor injuries like “dropping a can of Budweiser on their toe”.
Data obtained via a freedom of information request shows call stops – ambulance call outs that don’t result in a patient going to hospital - have risen 44pc since 2022.
The numbers of patients being treated on the scene rose dramatically from 60 in 2022, to 367 in 2025, a six-fold increase. Patients that refused to travel increased 30pc in the same period, up from 816 to 1,064 last year.
While the total number of completed callouts has increased 24pc, call stops show a significantly sharper rise.
“If people are worried and do feel like it’s an emergency, then the ambulance service should be open and available to them,” said Cllr Baily.
“However, those other increases - especially treated on scene – they’re not all I’m worried and I’m dying scenarios.”
“A lot of these are ‘I’ve a dropped a can of coke on my toe, or I’ve got a cold sore and I don’t want to be seen outdoors’ – and that was actual case – someone with a cold sore rang and ambulance because she didn’t want to be seen in public.”
Cllr Bailey believes public awareness needs to be raised around the function of the ambulance system, highlighting also that some people don’t call the emergency services when they should.
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.
For people who abuse the system, Cllr Baily urges stronger prosecutions to “bring proper penalties onto those who commit these absolutely awful crimes”.
“Taking an ambulance out of circulation can waste 40 minutes which delays ambulances and puts people and lives at risk,” she said previously.
The National Ambulance Service (NAS) said the rise in demand for ambulance services has been driven by population growth, an ageing population, rising levels of chronic disease, and ongoing hospital congestion.
They put the rise in call stops down to their focus on Alternative Care Pathways (ACPs), which aim to reduce unnecessary hospital transports and emergency department visits.
Alternative Care Pathway initiatives developed by the NAS include community paramedics, who respond to less serious incidents and travel to treat the patient at home.
Approximately 22,000 NAS calls were managed through ACPs in 2025, while there was an increase of 512pc of patients being treated at home nationally, between 2022 and 2025.
Cllr Baily acknowledged NAS’s response to the figures but said the answers “don’t seem to reflect the reality of the situation on the ground.”
“Our ambulance services are under pressure,” she said at a previous council meeting.
“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.”