South Yorkshire man who called ambulance 51 times ordered to get help

A South Yorkshire man who called an ambulance 51 times in six months has been ordered to seek help from mental health services.
Police.Police.
Police.

Barnsley County Court heard how the 35-year-old Barnsley man persistently called emergency services, before cancelling many of his requests for help when crews arrived.

Of the 51 calls he made, he cancelled 31 when the ambulance crews arrived.

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The man also frequently presented at Barnsley District General Hospital's accident and emergency department before going missing.

The case was told this led to police officers spending hours searching for him due to concerns for his welfare.

South Yorkshire Police attended 103 incidents involving the man over a one year period.

The court also heard how health care professionals had agreed that emergency services were being misused and the man was making inappropriate demands.

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A civil injunction for the man to seek help from mental health services was ordered at the court on Tuesday, March 6, after police put forward the case.

Other conditions of the injunction are for the man to only contact his dedicated mental health team and GP when needing assistance, and not to discharge himself from hospital.

After the hearing, PC Paul Davies, triage and case management officer for Barnsley, said: “The decision to take court action in order to remedy the situation was not taken lightly but should help protect valuable public resources.

“Even though diagnosed with a mental illness the man had capacity to realise what he was doing was wrong.

“We have a duty to protect services from being abused so they are available to the public in a genuine emergency.”