Bottom pimple, pizza delivery just some of absurd calls to 000 in Australia

MELBOURNE - Making crank calls is one thing, but absurd calls asking for lifts home and pizza delivery to triple zero is another matter entirely.

Not only do the calls delay emergency operators for minutes a time, they can also lead to an ambulance being needlessly deployed, said the Ambulance Service of NSW.

“Clearly those are absurd extremes and the message we want to get is just think carefully about the situation,” News.com.au quoted Chief Executive Greg Rochford as saying.

“I’ve had a bloke that’s been at the races all day, had sore feet and couldn’t get home so he called an ambulance to take him home,” said veteran Sydney-based triple zero operator Kath Woolfenden.

He added that there were other kinds of senseless calls like calling an ambulance for a toothache, and from someone who had a pimple on their posterior and wanted an ambulance.

The service has launched a new television advertisement, the first of its type in NSW, to tell people about the problem and hopefully reduce its incidence.

Calls from people who are lonely or have a cough have also been recorded.mbulances are deployed to the majority of triple zero calls, regardless of what’s reported, Rochford said.

Sometimes people simply request an ambulance with only little detail and then, on arrival, make absurd requests, he added.

The ambulance service’s Sydney call centre receives about 2000 calls a day. State-wide it handles around one million calls a year. (ANI)