The prevalence of non-urgent 999 calls: service users’ perspectives

Factors that motivate people to initiate 999 emergency ambulance services for non-urgent healthcare needs remain an area that is poorly understood. With increasing demands on emergency ambulances, it can be argued that the pressure to utilise healthcare resources effectively has never been higher.

The authors highlight that much research surrounding patients’ decisions as to whether to call for an ambulance has been carried out in other countries, or if UK based, it was undertaken before the development of various alternative urgent care pathways.

This qualitative study focuses on the patients’ and/or carers’ experiences of calling for an emergency ambulance for ‘primary care-appropriate health problems’ in an attempt to understand the factors that influenced their decisions to do this.

Undertaken in the Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust, a primary care doctor went out with ambulance staff responding to 999 calls, and between them they purposively selected and recruited patients whom they agreed were presenting with conditions that could be managed in primary care settings.