1 January 2012
As thousands of revellers across the capital
welcomed 2012, London Ambulance Service staff were dealing with an
exceptionally busy night.
Staff in the Service’s control room were taking an average of 10
emergency calls every minute in the hours after midnight – up until
4am they answered a total of 2,333 emergency calls.
The 13 treatment centres, operated with St John Ambulance,
treated a total of 274 patients and 55 of them were taken to
hospital.
Assistant Director of Operations John Hopson, who led the
Service’s response on New Year’s Eve, said: “Demand on the Service
in the early hours was extremely high and a lot of that extra
demand was because of alcohol-related calls. At the busiest point
of the night, our staff were taking 638 emergency calls an hour –
that’s an increase of 255 per cent on what they would expect to
deal with on a normal night.”
“We had to prioritise calls to make sure the most seriously ill
and injured patients got help as quickly as possible – that meant
more patients than normal with minor illnesses and injuries were
given advice over the telephone rather than automatically being
sent an ambulance.
“Throughout the night we used extra resources, such as
alternative response vehicles or ‘booze buses’, as well as staff on
foot with medical equipment. We’ve also been working closely with
St John Ambulance at temporary treatment centres meaning we were
able to ensure that people out celebrating in the centre of London
received the most appropriate medical care as quickly as
possible.
“I’d like to thank all of our frontline staff who have been
working extremely hard to care for patients on a very busy night,
and the people in our control room who have been dealing with an
exceptionally high number of calls.”
NEW YEAR’S EVE IN NUMBERS
The Service’s control room usually takes an average of 180 calls
an hour. The breakdown of calls per hour was as follows:
|
New Year’s Day
2012
Hour
|
Number of calls
received in the control room
|
|
00.00 – 01.00
|
527
|
|
01.00 – 02.00
|
629
|
|
02.00 – 03.00
|
638
|
|
03.00 – 04.00
|
539
|
|
Total number of
calls 00:00 – 04:00
|
2,333
|
Notes to editors
- For further information about the London Ambulance Service or
this news release please contact the communications department on
020 7783 2286.
- Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ldn_ambulance