Nosy neighbours are jamming 999 phone lines - and hosepipe ban hasn’t even begun

People reporting their neighbours for breaking the hosepipe ban are clogging up 999 phone lines, Devon and Cornwall police has said.

A hosepipe ban will come into force in the area from Tuesday next week, South West Water said – its first in 26 years.

Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Leaper said the force is “already seeing people calling about neighbours using hosepipes”.

“The ban is not in yet. It’s coming in – but that’s not a policing issue – that’s the water company,” she said. “People need to report it to South West Water if they want to do so.”

She added there has also been an increase in accidental “pocket dials”, which wastes police time trying to establish if it was a legitimate call, as well as reports of fly-tipping which should be directed to the council.

Ambulance waits ‘around 200 minutes’

It follows warnings that the average wait for ambulances for patients with suspected heart attacks and strokes is now more than three hours in Cornwall.

Debbie Richards, head of Cornwall Partnership Foundation Trust on Wednesday said she was “not proud” to report that average waits for this category were now “hovering around the 200-minute mark”.

The report in the Health Service Journal comes after a 90-year-old woman endured a 40-hour wait for an ambulance, only to be stuck in the vehicle overnight outside Accident and Emergency.

Steven Syms, from St Austell, in Cornwall, said his mother Daphne fell over at her home on Sunday evening, but paramedics did not arrive until Tuesday afternoon. She then had to remain in the vehicle overnight at Royal Cornwall Hospital as there was a queue at A&E. She was eventually diagnosed with a suspected fractured hip and needed an operation.

On Wednesday, Mr Syms said the system is “totally broken”, claiming his mother would have certainly died if her condition had been more serious.

Meanwhile, an 87-year-old man endured a 15-hour wait on the floor after a fall in St Columb Road, Cornwall. His daughter shared images on social media of a makeshift shelter she constructed to protect him while waiting for paramedics.

It follows official data showing average waits of 59 minutes for the category which includes heart attacks and strokes, against a target of 18 minutes. South Western Ambulance Service’s published figures for July show average waiting times of 1 hour 15 minutes across the region.

Last week official data showed almost 30,000 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E departments, up from 450 in the same month before the pandemic, with a figure of just 22 recorded back in 2015.

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s integrated care system (ICS) – which includes the hospital trust, ambulance service and Cornwall Council – said discharging people who are fit to leave remains one of the biggest challenges preventing the flow of patients through local hospitals.

On average, more than two thirds (70 per cent) of patients fit to be discharged from hospitals in the south-west remained stuck during the week ending July 31, according to the latest official figures.

The region performed second worst for discharge rates across the country behind the north-west, where three quarters (75 per cent) of patients who were well enough to leave remained in hospital.

Across England, around 60 per cent of patients fit to leave hospital remained stuck in July, with 12,900 patients a day on average spending more time in hospital than they needed to, an 11 per cent rise on the previous month.

Category 1 calls up by 38 per cent

In July, hospital leaders were told to take immediate steps to move patients out of emergency departments to create space for new patients and tackle so-called “bed blockers”.

“We recognise that this may involve the creation of observation areas and exploring further ways to add additional beds elsewhere in the hospital,” the letter said.

Ambulance call-outs for the most serious, life-threatening incidents were also the highest on record last month – 85,397 category 1 calls, an increase of almost two fifths (38 per cent) on July 2019.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly’s ICS is encouraging people to “use the most appropriate service”, including local pharmacies or 111 online.

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust issued guidance via its social media channels warning people “don’t just turn up” at A&E and to contact NHS 111 first.

Separately, new figures reveal ambulance services are using taxis to take thousands of patients to hospital.

Between April 2021 and January 2022, there were more than 24,000 journeys where a taxi was sent in response to a 999 or 111 call, according to Freedom of Information figures obtained by the BBC.

The number was up almost a quarter (23 per cent) on the previous year. Taxis are only sent in circumstances in which it is clinically safe to do so, it is understood.

One anonymous paramedic who spoke to the BBC said: “We fully understand that a 10-minute taxi is better than waiting 10 hours for an ambulance. We just pray that we don’t miss something during the phone conversation with the patient.”

A spokesman for NHS England in the South West said: “Health and care organisations across the South West continue to do all they can to make sure people get the treatment and care they need, as quickly as possible, in the face of significant pressures that saw them handle 118,000 ambulance calls and 118,000 A&E attendances last month.

“While stress on social care continues to affect our ability to discharge patients, the NHS has also announced plans to increase hospital capacity and reduce call-times ahead of winter. The public can help us by making the most of services like 111 online or local pharmacies, and only calling 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency.”