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Some people are just wankers.
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Need a taxi? Pensioners dial 000
* 'Sick' pensioners call ambulances when they need taxi
* They travel free, and soon recover
* Then it's off to the shops 150m away
PARAMEDICS responding to emergency Triple-0 calls in Sydney's west are instead being used as de facto taxi drivers to local shops.
Older residents are the main offenders - using their pensioner entitlements to secure a free ride in an ambulance instead of paying a taxi fare to go shopping, ambulance sources have confirmed.
An ambulance ride to Mt Druitt Hospital costs $290, but the fee is waived for pensioners and other entitlement card holders.
Paramedics have watched in horror as patients miraculously recover from headaches and other feigned ailments to go shopping across the road, The Daily Telegraph reports.
"You get them to the emergency department and they walk out the door. They are the same patients, you know who is going to do it," a source said.
"Once the ambulance (crew) has cleared paperwork, they leave and see the person crossing the road and going to the shopping centre. An ambulance is an instant free taxi with a pension (entitlement) card."
The first shops, including an Aldi supermarket and clothes shop, are 150m away from Mt Druitt Hospital and a Westfield mall is a few blocks away.
A series of other nuisance calls have been revealed by the ambulance service which declined to comment about the Mt Druitt shopping scam.
Ambulance officers were called to one woman complaining of a cut foot in Redfern only for paramedics to find she had beetroot in her slipper.
A spokeswoman said shift workers called ambulances complaining they were unable to sleep while other calls included people suffering stubbed toes.
Women regularly call complaining of period pain and another person pushed an emergency alarm just to check an ambulance turned up, the service said.
Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said she was aware of abuse similar to Mt Druitt around the state.
She called for serial abusers to be charged the equivalent of a taxi fee.
Sydney West Area Health is unaware of hospital patients going shopping.
Parents of chronically-ill children who rely on Mt Druitt Hospital were horrified to learn of the emergency scam.
Sarah Jones, from Willmot, has been told to call an ambulance as soon as her asthmatic 16-month-old son Ethan Kirkham has breathing problems. He spent three days in Mt Druitt hospital this month with asthma and bronchitis.
"It is just wrong and it upsets me greatly," Ms Jones said. "My son can have an attack any time." |
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**Man I'm Pretty**
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thats kinda funny
