BBC News Online looks at some of the worst examples.

Many ambulance services are struggling even to make their basic targets - to get to 75% of the most serious calls within eight minutes.

However, this effort is not helped by increasing numbers of 999 calls which are either trivial or simply fake.

It is not unknown for crews to be attacked after being lured into a deserted area by a hoax call.

In Bristol, an ambulance crew was pelted with stones by a gang of youths when they responded to a fake call about a boy who had fallen down stairs.

Not to be sniffed at

However, most problems are caused by people who summon an ambulance even though there is virtually nothing wrong with them.

One west country woman who dialled 999 because her TV remote control was out of reach.

Another 31-year-old was worried because she had sniffed deodorant by accident.

On Friday morning - the day of the announcement - London Ambulance Service staff received a call from a 22-year-old woman who had a blackhead which would not stop bleeding after she had squeezed it, an 18-year-old man who awoke with swollen hands after playing football yesterday, and a 20-year-old man who complained of flu-like symptoms.

The problem is that ambulance crews have to attend many of these calls, even when they suspect the incident may not be serious.

One Surrey woman who dialled for an ambulance because she had shampoo in her eyes, and a model called Gloucestershire Ambulance Service when she broke her fingernail.

Cake trauma

One pensioner told a 999 crew to wait 40 minutes before taking her to hospital because she was baking a cake.

Paramedics gave her a warning and left - only for the woman to ring again exactly 40 minutes later.

She told a second crew that her cake had "risen nicely" and she was ready to go to hospital.

Other requests border on the bizarre.

One woman phoned for an ambulance because her husband was clearly showing signs of serious illness.

She said that he was refusing to listen to her.