Simple headaches, back pains, menstrual cramps, or a sick cat do not require an ambulance. But more than 60,000 Dubai residents thought so in 2014.
The Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services (DCAS) received and responded to 145,332 calls across Dubai in 2014 on its emergency service hotline number 998. Many of the calls, however, turned out to be non-emergencies.
“As emergency medical services, and the only available in Dubai, we cannot say no to distress calls because sometimes the case may turn out to be a real emergency,” Dr Omar Al Sakkaf, Director of Medical and Technical Affairs at DCAS, told Gulf News.
“But still there’s a misuse of the facility, anybody can call so long as he has access to 999/998,” he added.
Of the more than 145,000 calls made last year, 22,264 were downright silly calls aimed to just play with the ambulance services, according to Dr Al Sakkaf.
“Why would you call an ambulance when you’re late for work? You shouldn’t do this. This is one example of misusing the facilities. Some people call because of a headache or to have their blood sugar checked at home,” Dr Al Sakkaf said.
“We also received a call where someone said, ‘My cat is sick. I need an ambulance.’ These are all silly calls,” he added.
Only 17 per cent of the total calls received and attended to in 2014 were real emergencies. Some 4,449 were classified as code red, referring to patients who needed immediate life-saving intervention as it was a life or death situation, such as trauma victims, people having a heart attack or a stroke.
Some 21,096 fell under code yellow or those who needed significant intervention but who could wait a few hours for help to arrive.
The remaining 92,422 were classified as code green or patients who needed medical treatment but assistance could be safely delayed. Dr Al Sakkaf said approximately half of this number did not need an ambulance.
“They shouldn’t call for normal occurrences like menstrual cramps, for example. This is normal physiology,” Dr Al Sakkaf said.
“What we are afraid of is if [due to the false alarms] we assess a call as silly and say “No” [only to find out later that it was a real emergency].”
Another problem, Dr Al Sakkaf said, is people calling for an ambulance and on it reaching their home, refusing their help or refusing to be transported to the hospital.
“The risk of misusing this service is that you are diverting this service from those who really need it. So, instead of the ambulance being able to respond to an emergency within eight minutes, it will take them 16 minutes because of the diversion,” Dr Al Sakkaf said.
Besides endangering other people’s lives, unnecessary calls for ambulance service also waste resources.
“This is a government service, it’s a free service. So, in this country, they should appreciate it. No ambulance service is free in the world, you pay for it. So if I send an ambulance 383 times to respond to [silly calls], that means it’s costing the Dubai government a lot of money.”
Dr Al Sakkaf said those found to be misusing the ambulance service are charged Dh300 ($82) for transporting them to a hospital. The actual cost of dispatching a Dubai ambulance is between Dh700 ($191) and Dh1,000 ($272) in Dubai.
Dr Al Sakkaf also urged residents and motorists to obey traffic rules, especially when an ambulance is on the road. He said many motorists follow the ambulance to avoid traffic. They should refrain from doing so.
By Janice Ponce de Leon
