THE New Year brought a challenging time for East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS), who were busy responding to people who needed help having sustained an injury or falling ill.
Peter Ripley, EMAS Director of Operations said: “In the first four hours of 2013, we received over 1,000 emergency 999 calls. On an average day, we expect to receive around 2,000 calls.
“I pay tribute to our staff who worked in on the frontline – our skilled staff answering calls received in our Emergency Operations Centres and our clinicians out on the road providing medical treatment and care. They did a truly magnificent job, in challenging circumstances.
“They were supported by operational management teams based at hospital Emergency Departments to assists with the clinical handover of patients to hospital staff. We were also supported by our Community First Responders, Fire co-responders, the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance and EMICS (East Midlands Immediate Care Scheme doctors), all of whom help us to provide the very best service during busy and challenging times. I thank them for their continued dedication and support.
“The festive season may be over, however we expect to continue to receive significant call numbers over the next few weeks and I urge people to use the right NHS services available to them for treatment of minor illnesses or injuries. Full details of local services can be found via www.nhs.uk“
Figures from EMAS show:
* In the first four hours of New Year’s Day 1,074 total calls were received.
* On 1 January 2013, the total calls received hit 3,223. Of those 1,336 were for people reported to be in an immediately life-threatening situation. On 1 January 2012, the service received more calls with 3,436 picked up in Emergency Operations Centres.
* From Christmas Eve through to the end of December, the busiest day for EMAS was on December 29 with 2,611 total calls being picked up. Of those 1,002 were from people reporting an immediately life-threatening condition. This figure was an increase on the number of calls received during what is referred to as ‘black Friday’ (the last Friday before Christmas Day), when 2,384 calls were received – 457 more than would be normally received on a typical Friday.
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