“Unprecedented” demand on ambulance service

Posted: December 30, 2014

Posted in: Personal Injury 

Figures have revealed a 30% increase in serious calls made last year during the festive period. Ambulance bosses in Yorkshire described the number of calls received over the Christmas weekend as “unprecedented”. They said that a lot of calls came as a result of the wintry weather experienced in the region over the weekend. The ambulance service’s director of operations Dr David Macklin said that the service had been forced to draft in extra staff and volunteers to help cope with the extra demand.

He said that there had been an extra 7,000 calls made to the NHS non-emergency number 111 compared with 2013. The Yorkshire Ambulance Service covers around 6,000 square miles across the Yorkshire and Humber area, serving more than five million people.

‘Red calls’ account for half of calls made

Dr Macklin said that the increased number of calls was down to the poor weather, and the fact that GP practices and NHS services were closed over the Christmas weekend.

According to figures gathered by the service, they had seen a 4.5% increase on the demand for help on the 27 and 28 of December last year. Furthering this, there was a 30% increase in immediately life-threatening calls, with ‘red calls’ accounting for over half of the calls made on the 27 and 28 of December. Where 2,082 calls were made to the service, 2,095 were ‘red’, meaning immediately life-threatening.

Dr Macklin anticipates that this pressure will continue into the new year.

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