Netcare 911 pranksters face legal action

The emergency services provider Netcare 911 is warning the public against making prank calls to their call centre because it wastes time and resources that could have been utilised to save a life.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said it is a problem country wide.

“We do get a lot of prank calls from Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Limpopo. The problem is worse during school holidays when children are at home,” Mathe told the News.

Recently Netcare 911’s emergency operations centre received a call that a woman was in a critical condition in Sebokeng after being shot. An emergency care practitioner, two intermediate life support paramedics and a basic life support paramedic rushed to the scene of the incident and when they could not find the address that was given, they realised that it was actually a prank call.

“Netcare 911 wants to make the public aware that when their paramedics rush to the scene of a hoax emergency, they put their lives and the lives of those in life-threatening emergencies at risk,” said Mathe.

In a statement, Mathe said that prank-callers are the reason that medical care to all citizens is compromised – those who desperately need assistance from paramedics have to wait longer for a response. Some even lose their lives because paramedics’ time is being wasted when they respond to prank calls.

“Our duty as a medical service is to provide the best pre-hospital medical care possible. We would really like to call on citizens to refrain from making hoax emergency calls. Parents are also advised to educate their children on the dangers of taking part in prank-calling,” said Athlenda.

The News spoke to the Kagiso Police Station spokesperson, Warrant Officer Solomon Sibiya and he confirmed that there could be legal repercussions for prank-callers.

“The organisation affected can lay a charge against the culprits. Such activity can get someone into serious trouble with the law because you are wasting valuable time and resources,” Sibiya told the News.

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