A man called the emergency services on New Year’s Day asking for an ambulance to come to his home to perform a DNA test because his “partner cheated”.
The man spoke with an operator from North West Ambulance Service, which covers Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
In a recording of the conversation, below, the operator asks the man “is the patient breathing” to which he replies: “OK, please I’m just ringing because my partner has cheated on me.”
‘We don’t do DNA tests’
– Operator: Right, listen to me is the patient breathing?
– Caller: Hello?
– Operator: Is the patient breathing?
– Caller: Everything okay, I want you ambulance to come to my house to go to do DNA test.
– Operator: Excuse me? Why?
– Caller: Because my partner has cheated on me.
– Operator: Right, OK this is an emergency service, we don’t do DNA tests.
– The man then tries to speak over the operator to which she responds: “Sir, listen to me, listen to me, this is an emergency line, we don’t deal with domestic cases and we don’t do DNA tests so I suggest you speak to somebody else.”
– Caller: Which number? Can I get a number please?
– Operator: I’ve not got a number for DNA tests I’m afraid.
– Caller: Thank you very much, bye.
– Operator: Bye bye.
The recording was posted to social media by the ambulance service, who accompanied the video with the caption “FFS – Friday fact share… Really though?!”
“We received almost 6,000 999 calls on New Year’s Day (that’s 33% more than usual),” the North West Ambulance Service wrote on Facebook.
“Needless to say, we didn’t send this man an ambulance but when we receive calls for anything other than a serious emergency, it wastes our precious time and resources.”