STOURBRIDGE MP Margot James has said people "shouldn't rush to judgement" after it was revealed paramedics were called to one property in Stourbridge more than 200 times within a 12 month period.

West Midlands Ambulance Service attended the address 242 times between September 1, 2013 and August 31, 2014 - 231 visits were due to falls.

But despite the frequent call outs, the patient was only taken to hospital on four occasions.

Across the Black Country, nine other addresses were visited a total of 1,103 times within the same period, with 84 due to callers being "generally unwell" and hospital trips required on 387 occasions.

The information was released following a Freedom of Information request but the service would not reveal exact addresses for data protection reasons.

Ms James said while abuse of the emergency services put lives at risk, there was a difference between people making hoax calls and making more calls than necessary out of anxiety.

She added: "While we shouldn't rush to judgement over every case, where malicious intent can be proved people who make hoax calls to the emergency services should feel the full force of the law."

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "The trust is aware of a number of high volume service users who sometimes called the service every day or more. "Some people do suffer from complex health related disorders that at times require emergency intervention on a regular basis and although this may appear to be a misuse of resources it is indeed entirely appropriate and embraces the ethos of delivery of high quality patient care.

"West Midlands Ambulance Service works with the local health economy and social services to put in place care packages that are designed to find alternative solutions for the individual. In many cases this approach has led to a significant reduction or indeed a complete stop in the need to dial 999." Laura Broster from Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group said that when someone is identified as an inappropriate frequent caller, a clinical review will take place together with the ambulance service and Dudley Council.

She added: "The review is conducted to understand the underlying reasons for the calls/attendance and they are a key are a feature of Dudley CCG's strategy for reducing unnecessary admissions to hospital and unnecessary calls to the ambulance service."