Growing concern about hoax calls to ambulance service in Scotland
Crews have dealt with more than 4,000 since 2013.
There is growing concern about the scale of hoax calls needing to be dealt with by the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Staff have dealt with more than 4,000 since 2013 which has taken up almost 1,700 hours of time.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton wants more to be done to highlight the dangers of malicious calls.
He told Forth 1: "It's very unfair that people would try to disrupt the ambulance service just for fun.
"The service deals with hundreds of thousands of calls every year but these figures show that a small number of malicious individuals are conspiring to make their jobs harder than they need to be.
“Every call handler tied up dealing with a malicious call is one who is unavailable to help save a life elsewhere.
"That’s especially important when an overburdened service is dealing with a surge in demand.
“Our ambulance staff are under huge strain.
“The Scottish Government needs to educate the public about the risk they are taking when they waste call handlers’ time and the ambulance service needs an immediate and transformational injection of resources and capacity to tackle the immense challenges it faces.
“That’s how we give new hope to the patients and staff of our health service.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We strongly condemn hoax calls to our emergency services.
“These are not victimless pranks and they can potentially distract and divert vital resources and attention away from those who are in life-threatening situations.
“The Scottish Ambulance Service has been clear that inappropriate, malicious or nuisance callers will be reported to the police, who will investigate and act accordingly.
“This is the right and proportionate procedure as the Ambulance Service also point out that in many cases the call is the result of a mental health issue rather than malice and the patient may still need help.
"In these cases the relevant agencies are advised so that appropriate care can be provided.”
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “Anyone who calls 999 without a genuine need is potentially putting lives at risk by tying up valuable resources that could be needed to respond to a life-threatening call.
"Therefore, malicious and hoax callers will be reported to the police.”