EMERGENCY calls for ambulances have more than doubled in the east during the last decade, figures revealed today.
EMERGENCY calls for ambulances have more than doubled in the east during the last decade, figures revealed today.
In 1994/5 there were 71,657 calls to the East of England Ambulance Service in Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. In 2006/7 there were 194,235.
According to the service, additional staffing levels, changes in the way emergency services are delivered and new technologies mean the dramatic increase has not put too great a strain on the service. In fact, it said response times have improved during the same period.
But Matthew Ware, head of communications at the East of England Ambulance Service, urged people to think before dialling 999.
He said: “Ambulance crews attend far more jobs per shift than they would have done previously.
“There is a lot less down time. They quite often go from one job to another and not back to base.
“Ten years ago we were only just starting to see one or two fast response vehicles. Now we have a lot of single-man fast response vehicles who can get to a heart attack victim quicker. It's a completely different ways of working.
“There has been much more investment in the ambulance service.
“And the technology is better. There's no comparison in the control room to what there was before and what there is now.
“There is not much of a problem because we don't send an ambulance to every single call anymore.”
Mr Ware said he thought the increases could be put down to a higher than average increase in population in the east of England, an increase in the number of calls to drink/drug related incidents, public perception of poor access to GP out of hours services and an increase in mobile phone usage.
He added that another possible explanation was people's over-eagerness to call for an ambulance when they were not in an emergency situation.
He said: “We live in a risk-adverse society where people panic as soon as there is even the slightest thing wrong and they don't know where else to go. They should be ringing NHS Direct.”
Has an ambulance saved your life? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or -email: eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
The number of 999 calls in Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire
1994/5 - 71,657
1995/6 - 79,046
1996/7 - 88,185
1997/8 - 95,893
1998/9 - 100,741
1999/2000 - 105,924
2000/1 - 114,145
2001/2 - 124,792
2002/3 - 134,149
2003/4 - 150795
20004/5 - 164,718
2005/6 - 179,959
2006/7 - 194,235
SOURCE : East of England Ambulance Service
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here