NSW Ambulance and NSW Police are appealing to the public to call Triple Zero (‘000’) only in emergency situations to ensure paramedics and police officers can help those most in need.
NSW Police said new figures showed thousands of non-emergency Triple Zero calls were being made each week, at a time when emergency services had never been busier.
The Police said that in the 12 months to 31 March, NSW Ambulance responded to more than 200,000 jobs where no patient was taken to hospital.
They said that during the same period it received 800,000 requests for assistance via Triple Zero, with 40,000 transferred to a non-emergency line, and more than 150,000 calls later deemed to have been more suitable to a non-emergency line.
NSW Ambulance Assistant Commissioner Steven Norris, Director of Control Centres, said non-emergency jobs take paramedics and call takers away from their most important work – saving lives.
“If you are having a medical emergency we will always respond to you but too often our paramedics are responding to calls that we simply don’t need to attend,” Mr Norris said.
“We want the public to think before calling us for trivial matters.”
Police Communications and Security Commander, Acting Assistant Commissioner Rashelle Conroy, said there were a variety of ways for the community to report non-emergency or minor incidents, which would save Triple Zero for all emergencies.
“Triple Zero operators understand that life-threatening incidents can be traumatic and stressful and their priority is to establish where help is needed and why,” A/Assistant Commissioner Conroy said.
“More than 70 per cent of calls to Triple Zero are made from mobile phones and as callers often focus on relaying what’s happening, our operators need to take control and pinpoint the exact location of the emergency to know where to send police or other resources.”
Mr Norris said that to help meet increasing demand, NSW Ambulance would soon deploy 100 paramedics earlier than planned as part of the Government’s commitment to recruit 750 new paramedics and control centre staff over four years from 2018.
NSW Police are to be expanded by 1500 extra police officers over the next four years.
