DERRY is the second worst place in the North of Ireland for making hoax 999 ambulance calls, according to figures released.
The figures have been revealed by Ambulance Service (NIAS) under Freedom of Information laws for a report of all hoax calls.
According to the figures, 98 hoax calls were made from the BT48 post code area in Derry.
This covers cityside, Ballynagard, Coshquin, Rosemount, The Collon and Culmore areas.
There were a further 50 hoax calls from BT47 which covers areas such as Waterside, Dungiven, Claudy, Eglinton, Feeny, Park and New Buildings.
John McPoland of the Ambulance Service said a hoax call prevents his staff from reaching someone who really needs paramedic assistance.
“We got a snapshot of some of the calls, they are all ridiculous calls we would think that nobody this in day and age would even contemplate doing it,” said Mr McPoland.
“We have to say that many of these calls come from people who are extremely lonely, extremely isolated and vulnerable and we as a caring service do have a degree of compassion for them.
“But we also need to make sure that our resources have been targeted to those people who may die without our help.”
Overall, NIAS received 4,381 calls that it identified as possible hoaxes between January 2015 and November 30, 2015.
A total of 46 of them came in on New Year’s Day 2015, more than any other day.
There was no postcode identified for 2,219 of them, which means the real totals for each postcode are likely to be higher.
It’s likely that many of these calls were not made by residents of these postcodes.
HOAX CALLS TO NORTHERN IRELAND AMBULANCE SERVICE, JANUARY 2015 to NOVEMBER 2015:
BT1 // 202
BT48 // 98
BT12 // 88
BT7 // 76
BT4 // 69
BT14 // 64
BT34 // 62
BT15 // 62
BT11 // 61
BT2 // 60
BT47 // 50
BT20 // 46
BT13 // 45
BT5 // 44
BT9 // 42
BT41 // 42
BT28 // 41
BT40 // 40
BT35 // 39
BT79 // 37
BT6 // 37
BT30 // 37
BT43 // 36
BT23 // 36
BT66 // 32
BT42 // 31
BT19 // 30
ERR // 28
BT38 // 28
BT36 // 27
BT71 // 24
BT17 // 23
BT62 // 21
BT74 // 20
BT37 // 20
BT82 // 19
BT8 // 19
BT60 // 18
BT49 // 18
BT45 // 18
BT33 // 18
BT61 // 17
BT16 // 17
BT80 // 16
BT78 // 16
BT70 // 16
BT32 // 16
BT51 // 14
BT93 // 13
BT52 // 13
BT44 // 13
BT56 // 12
BT54 // 12
BT10 // 12
BT63 // 11
BT27 // 11
BT53 // 10
BT24 // 10
BT39 // 9
BT21 // 9
BT81 // 8
BT67 // 8
BT65 // 8
BT46 // 8
BT25 // 8
BT22 // 8
BT18 // 8
BT92 // 7
BT94 // 6
BT55 // 5
BT3 // 5
BT64 // 4
BT31 // 4
BT29 // 4
ROI // 3
BT75 // 2
BT77 // 1
BT26 // 1
