I was working on the (somewhat ignorant) assumption that the disease could have been easily diagnosed by a GP in a few minutes. However, even for GPs to be able to do a home visit for every case of 'bad flu' would require a rather large quantity of GPs (it would also spread the disease like wild fire....). It was good to see the doctor sticking up for the advice given - and pointing out that little else could have been done. Unlike the local trust which seemed more worried about finding something to blame. In response to the junior citizens at school - personally I think something like this should be on the national curriculum. Then (eventually) everyone will know (perhaps even sooner if kids tell parents what happened at school (assuming kids still tell parents that stuff...). In Germany it is also a requirement that you have a valid 2 day course first aid certificate to get a driving license. Along with a good Samaritan law tends to make bystanders more useful. Not sure how much this would reduce the time wasters (would certainly increase the number of FAs around though). In response to various comments below about reducing ambulance misuse, one problem is that AMPDS uses suggestive questions (well, i think it does - and i'm not dialling 999 to find out :P) - this makes patients think they have symptoms they never had in the first place (like shortness of breath). The other problem is of different peoples' opinions (what is a lot of pain, or a lot of blood?). Should we charge for misuse of ambulances? No, I think we should adopt a method I heard once used on a regular drunk. After the crew had picked up the regular who didn't need treatment they checked with dispatch to see if they could take him to another hospital - one a little less local. Dispatch confirmed they weren't busy and the drunk went on a little trip through the countryside. Needless to say, the drunk never misused the service again. "So you want to go to hospital for a runny nose? - unfortunately East London is on divert, so we'll be taking you to Edinburgh General"