AMBULANCE staff are calling on the public to 'make the right call' after it was revealed £1 million is wasted every month when paramedics respond to hoax calls.

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) revealed that every month there are 1,181 ambulance responses to locations where no patients can be found.

A further 6,207 responses are made to people who refuse care or treatment from paramedics when they arrive on scene.

These figures have been published by NWAS as part of its 'make the right call' campaign which urges the public to choose the right NHS service to get appropriate care.

Director of operations at NWAS, Ged Blezard said: “The cost of wasted journeys is significant, but so is the amount of time that we spend looking for people who we think need our help when we could actually be helping someone else.

“There are many reasons why people may not be there when our crews arrive; sometimes they decide to go to hospital with a family member, or get treatment elsewhere, but don’t let us know.

"This could be down to unrealistic expectations of how quickly ambulances respond, or because we are simply that busy that they, unfortunately, have to wait longer for a response than we would like.

“It is really important that if people no longer need us they call 999 to cancel so that we can get to the next patient quickly and don’t waste time trying to find people who don’t need or want our help.”

NWAS crews respond to around 3,000 incidents every day across the North West serving more than 7,000,000 people.

The maximum number of ambulances on the road is 329 which means there is one ambulance per 21,000 people.

With each of the call outs costing £145, the total price of wasted ambulance journeys costs the ambulance service £12,855,120 but this could have funded; 92 brand new, fully kitted ambulances, salaries and staffing costs for 286 paramedics or 390 emergency medical technicians, 1,071 high spec monitoring devices, 2,571,024 blankets to keep patients warm and 1,071 ambulance stretchers.

Ged added: “Winter is always the busiest time of year for the ambulance service. 999 calls increase as the weather gets colder and party season is underway.

"It’s even more important at this time of year that you help us to help you.

“We want people to do the right thing first which will get them the best care; this means calling 999 when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk.

"For urgent medical advice when it’s not an emergency they can get advice at 111.nhs.uk.

“And remember; please call 999 to cancel an ambulance if it’s no longer needed.”