Ambos forced to deal with absurd calls

Lives are being endangered by a rising number of people making absurd calls to triple zero asking for lifts home, pizza and even help opening cat food, the Ambulance Service of NSW says.

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

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.

Ambulance Service of NSW chief executive Greg Rochford doesn't want to dissuade those in genuine emergency or who think there is an emergency which turns out not to be.

But lives are put in danger by the pizza and cat food-type callers.

"Clearly those are absurd extremes and the message we want to get is just think carefully about the situation," Mr Rochford told reporters on Friday.

The service says it receives two or three such calls a day across NSW.

It doesn't have any firm figures because of the way calls are recorded, but anecdotal evidence from triple zero operators indicates the problem is getting worse.

"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.

"I've also had somebody who's had a toothache for three days and all of a sudden decided he wanted an ambulance.

"Apparently we had one this morning, somebody had a pimple on their posterior and wanted an ambulance."

Calls from people who are lonely or have a cough have also been recorded.

Ambulances are deployed to the majority of triple zero calls, regardless of what's reported, Mr Rochford said.

That's because information can sometimes be vague or paramedics are asked to go and double-check.

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

Coral Read, whose life was saved by paramedics following a car accident five months ago, said she was stunned to think people misused triple zero services.

"Fair dinkum, I find it absolutely extraordinary," she said.

The ambulance service's Sydney call centre receives about 2000 calls a day.

State-wide it handles around one million calls a year.