Warning over hoax calls to ambulance service

Calls from West and North West

By Dara Bradley

THERE were 25 hoax calls made to the Ambulance Service from counties in the West and North West last year.

Just over 11 per cent of all hoax calls made to the National Ambulance Service (NAS) last year were in the HSE West and North West region, which includes Galway and Mayo.

The public has been warned about the dangers of making prank calls after figures released under Freedom of Information (FOI) revealed there were 221 hoax calls to NAS in 2025. According to the HSE there are different categories of hoax calls ranging from abuse of NAS controllers down the phone to ambulances being dispatched only to have nothing found at the location.

Some 89 hoax calls – just over 40% of the year’s total – were made in the HSE Midwest. In 2025, there were 36 hoax calls made in HSE Southwest; 27 in HSE Dublin and North East; 26 in Dublin and South East; 25 in HSE West and North West; and 18 in HSE Dublin and Midlands.

Trade union SIPTU health division organiser in the West and North-West Ciaran Sheridan, who represents ambulance workers, said every hoax call “could be life or death”.

“You could have an ambulance responding to a hoax call, not knowing it is a hoax, and that same ambulance could be needed in another location where someone has a life-threatening injury,” said Mr Sheridan.

He said the volume of hoax calls was higher when public phone boxes were more widespread, and calls were harder to trace than they are now with mobile phones.

Making hoax calls to emergency services is a criminal offence in Ireland that can attract fines of up to €5,000 and up to six months in prison.

The figures show 30 hoax calls were made to NAS last October, the highest of any month in 2025. A HSE spokesperson confirmed hoax calls “are referred to the Gardaí on a case-by-case basis”.

“Hoax calls range from abuse to our controllers down the phone to ambulances being dispatched only to have nothing found at the location. Hoax calls divert resources away from genuine emergencies and can delay responses to patients who are seriously ill or injured.

“We treat every call as genuine and urgent and cannot assume that any call is a prank. Hoax calls cost valuable time, money, and maybe even lives. We would urge people not to do it. An ambulance on its way to a hoax cannot be on its way to you or a loved one,” the HSE said.