I agree that some form of charging should be introduced - however, the flipside of the "£15 per callout" would be the potential for it to open the doors on an "everything is chargeable" policy, similar to the US, which then also leaves certain groups at risk and afraid to call an ambulance. And, as always, those certain groups can be the ones most in need. I'm trying to figure out a reasonable way of also assessing whether a call should be chargeable on the "£250 per wasted callout" theme - the call-takers won't be in a position to do the assessment, and the most logical choice would be the drivers/paramedics themselves. However, if one has had a bad day, would there be a possibility of saying "you're wasting my time. £250 please"? I suppose an appeals process would need to be put in place in case of events like that. All things considered, both ways need more thought - I'd rather still have access to free healthcare and be fined if I'd called up for no good reason, rather than paying for each occasion, but that's because I really don't want to see the UK adopting the US healthcare model when it comes to paying for everything. (And, US readers, if I've made any sweeping (and wrong) assumptions in that, then I apologise now)