Air ambulance called to two hoaxes in one day

The Midlands Air Ambulance (MAA) says its helicopters responded to two emergencies in one day which turned out to be hoaxes.

The dispatches wasted around £6,000 as well as putting lives at risk across the region, the service said.

The unnecessary call outs were on Monday in Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham.

The charity said it was urging people to think how their actions might affect others before calling upon the service.

The first hoax was to an alleged assault at a commercial property in Stoke-on-Trent on Monday morning.

The second was during the evening to a report of a collision at a house in Kingstanding.

Paramedic Sarah Foley, who provides critical pre-hospital care, was on both missions and said it was "extremely saddening".

"We want to make sure those making these calls are aware of the dangers that providing false and malicious information to emergency services can pose to the public," she said.

Hoax calls were thankfully quite rare, the charity said, with fewer than 10 a year, so having two in one day was "extremely rare and quite strange".

The charity's crews serve a population of around six million people across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham, the Black Country and the surrounding areas.

Ian Jones, clinical operations director for MAA charity, said that their daily missions were funded by generous donations from the public.

“To see that money go to waste, as crews attend a scene that does not have a patient after being provided with false information is disheartening,” he said.

The charity said it attended an average of 4,300 missions a year, with each one costing about £2,950.

“That is money, fuel, and time – resources which should be used on patients in critical need who actually need our advanced medical help,” Mr Jones added.

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