I READ with sympathy and frustration the letter entitled "I can only assume targets for ambulances are too low" (Letters, October 3).

As a paramedic I feel I need to defend us ambulance staff, even though I don't work for Hereford & Worcester. I agree fully that a response time of 30 minutes is not acceptable in today's society.

However, such a response time has nothing to do with the strenuous targets the Government has set the short-staffed and hard-pressed ambulance service, who despite lack of staff, lack of vehicles and an ever-increasing workload are meeting the Government standards.

It can occur for the following reasons.

Abuse of the 999 system: Members of the public continuously make hoax calls or dial 999 for problems that do not require an ambulance. I have been called to "patients" because they wanted a light bulb changing, they had wet the bed or were drunk. I could go on.

Abusers of the ambulance service need to be made accountable for this, but at the moment they are not.

Lack of staff and vehicles: The ambulance service can offer the right person a great career. However, we all are frustrated at being physically and verbally abused by the public; being short-staffed due to experienced people leaving due to poor working conditions and pay, or injuries from the work we do; management failing to recruit and retain staff; and a shortage of fleet vehicles. Therefore remaining staff are under immense pressure.

Unfortunately until drastic changes occur in the 999 ambulance system the rare sad events referred to in last week's letter will continue.

But the public can help to avoid them by not dialling for an ambulance unless it really is an emergency.

We don't want the genuinely ill to be afraid of calling for an ambulance - but what we do want to do is to stop the abuse of the 999 service which can result in someone paying the highest cost - their life.

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