APPRECIATE your ambulance service. This is the one new year’s resolution West Midlands Ambulance Service would like residents to keep not just for 2016, but for life.

People don’t need an ambulance if they've lost their keys. A scary hedgehog doesn’t equate to a medical emergency. If people need a lift home after a night out in the pub, they should call a taxi not 999.

As part of a week-long awareness campaign, the service will be releasing audio clips from 999 calls to highlight the shocking examples of inappropriate calls.

In addition, staff be tweeting live from one of the trust’s control rooms later in the week to spend a day with a 999 call assessor.

Jeremy Brown, West Midlands Ambulance Service’s general manager responsible for emergency operations centres, said: “Despite us being an ‘emergency service’, it’s truly shocking what people consider to be appropriate to call 999 for.

“We’re here for genuine life-threatening emergencies such as chest pains, cardiac arrests and difficulties breathing.”

The audio will be released via our ‘officialwmas’ accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.