I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience - it must have felt humiliating to be part of the broken system, and I bet he was a stoic who thanked you for turning up at all. I think that there are probably two classes of people in your area (or the country in general): 1. those who think "I feel a bit crappy, and it's not like they've got anything better to do" and 2. those who think "I'm not dying just yet, and there must be people far worse off than me". Inevitably 1. has a sniffle and 2. has a heart attack. I have a retired fire-fighter friend - when I saw a small fire I rang him to ask him if I should ring 999. His response: "Is it a fire? Is it supposed to be there? Then ring 999." Unfortunately medical emergencies are far less clear-cut to the layman. Would a TV or newspaper ad campaign help, do you think? Examples of sensible and stupid "emergency" calls? Every time stupid "cat is too playful" calls are publicised, surely it makes people think even just a little bit?