London: Calls for reform of the 999 service by setting up a new 888 service for non-urgent problems has had the support of Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard.

The Labour MP said: "The response by the emergency services to 999 calls is being seriously affected by the number of non-urgent calls being made to the service.

"Unfortunately there are some people who abuse the service by using it for calls to the police or medical services which are trivial and in no way could be regarded as emergencies.

"I would ask everyone to think carefully before making a 999 call whether it really is an emergency. Every call which has to be dealt with, which really shouldn't have been made, could mean someone who is in a life-threatening situation having to wait."

Mr Gerrard said that part of the problem was that 999 is the only number people know for the police, fire brigade and ambulance services, so it gets used when what someone really wants is information rather than emergency help.

"We also need a major campaign to persuade everyone not to use emergency numbers unless they really need to," said Mr Gerrard.

November 22, 2001 12:30