RESIDENTS are being urged to help take the strain off the struggling ambulance service.

Inappropriate emergency calls are wasting time the East of England Ambulance Service does not have to spare.

A lack of resources, highlighted in a Care Quality Commission report this week, has highlighted how every second is crucial.

Call handler Shelley Moore has been taking calls for a year for the six county service, which includes Essex.

Ms Moore said: "Calls cover everything you can think of.

"From new life with women in labour, to cardiac arrests and everything in between.

"One of the biggest challenges of being a call handler can be the sheer volume of calls, and the fact that more and more people seem to think that they need an ambulance when in fact a trip to their GP would be far more appropriate."

Ms Moore said her most memorable call was from a teenage girl who found her dad collapsed and struggling for breath.

"He was going into cardiac arrest and I had to talk her through what to do whilst her younger sister was standing at the top of the stairs just screaming," she said.

"I could hear how badly she wanted to lose it and panic, but between my encouragement and her listening and willingness to follow what I was saying, she got him on the floor and started CPR.

"She did everything I asked her to do.

"When the crew arrived, I took a moment to tell her that she had done really well and given her dad the best chance she could."

But she also remembers those who should never have dialled 999.

She said: "I have had my share of inappropriate calls. A lady who had been shaving her legs in the shower and cut herself, a very jolly drunk who said he needed an ambulance because he 'kept bumping into things', someone who had a spider land on their arm and they were worried because it didn't bite him but he was worried about the ecosystem as it didn't look like a native spider, a woman who was distressed because she had smoked a cigarette and now could not do the washing up and more.

"And a man who called me for his brother who had a toothache.

"They were calling from literally right outside A&E at the hospital and had called an ambulance because they had been told they would have to wait several hours to be seen as it was not a medical emergency and he needed an ambulance as his brother was in a lot of pain from his tooth.

"Having been see at A&E and given pain relief and advised to sort a dentist appointment and some further pain relief from the pharmacy, he called again the next night for an ambulance as they forgot to get the painkillers and he simply had to have an ambulance as the tooth was still giving him a lot of pain."

The trust is looking at ways to increase resources but urged the public to only dial 999 in an emergency.