NUISANCE calls to Teesside's ambulance service are putting people's lives at risk, it has been warned.
About one in four call-outs for Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (Tenyas) are unnecessary, according to managers.
Recent calls include a query on where to buy cigarettes on a Bank Holiday, a woman who was concerned about her sick cat and crews being asked to help look for a lost handbag.
A campaign, named Call an Ambulance for the Wrong Reason and Someone Might Die, has been launched to encourage people to use the 999 service correctly.
Jayne Barnes, chief executive of Tenyas, said: "Inappropriate calls are a real problem because they divert emergency resources away from patients with potentially life-threatening, time-critical conditions.
"In October alone, the number of life-threatening calls received by the service increased by four per cent."
Crews are still meeting the target of reaching 75 per cent of life-threatening calls within eight minutes.
Bev Richards, duty deployment manager, said: "What many people don't realise is that while a crew is dealing with a patient with a stubbed toe, they can't get to a patient in the next street with chest pains."
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