THE ambulance service is urging people to only call 999 in an emergency this festive season after 23 frequent callers were convicted.

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) is reminding people to use other, more appropriate services for less urgent conditions.

During 2017, across the South West patch, there were 23 court convictions against frequent callers who have called into the 999 ambulance control hubs.

Penalties range from criminal behavioural orders, community orders, fines, court injunctions and custodial sentences.

SWASFT has a dedicated frequent caller team that works with patients to manage their demand on the service.

Not everyone defined as a frequent caller is ‘abusing’ the system, according to SWASFT.

There are legitimate cases where someone may be at the end of their life or have a complex, ongoing medical condition meaning that frequent access to emergency care is required.

A frequent caller is defined nationally as an adult who makes five or more emergency calls related to individual episodes of care in a month, or 12 or more in three months, from a private dwelling.

From April to September 2017, SWASFT handled 575,163 emergency calls, of which 44,121 were from frequent callers. It is estimated that 60 hours of clinicians’ time are lost to frequent callers across the Trust per day.

Dr Simon Scott-Hayward, medical director primary care, said: “Those who are not in genuine need can use precious resources that should be allocated to those who are in a life-threatening time critical condition.

“Callers can be found guilty of abusing the system and causing annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety through the Misuse of Communications Act for repeated inappropriate calls to 999 services.”

A previous frequent caller, who was helped by the multi-agency team, but wants to remain anonymous, said: “I have come to my senses as to how busy they [the ambulance service] are. I was calling unnecessarily due to anxiety and my health worries.”

There are around 2,000 active frequent callers in the ambulance service across the South West. Most of them fall into the more vulnerable groups, such as mental health, dementia, drug and alcohol or social care.