Calls to region's ambulance service up 27 per cent in March

The busy start to 2016 continued for the East of England Ambulance Service which received more than 98,000 calls in March, 18,000 more than 12 months ago.

The most common calls were for falls and patients with breathing difficulties and chest pain.

Rob Ashford, acting director of service delivery, said: “We continue to face unprecedented demand on our service, which places pressure on everyone in the trust who are working hard to provide the best possible service to patients.

“We have increased the number of clinicians in our control rooms to give medical advice and ensure that we are sending ambulance staff to life-threatening and serious medical emergencies.

“We are also planning to hire hundreds of extra staff and the first phase of our recruitment campaign to recruit 150 associate ambulance practitioners (AAP) began last week.”

For more information about the new roles, visit https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/search_vacancy/aa3a94717d5b1134182d27c556f75a59/?action=search&master_id=120792For an informal discussion on this post, please contact the HR Services Team on 01234 243200.

The trust launched ‘It’s your call’ earlier this year. The campaign provides information about which NHS service to call for your needs, what happens when you call 999, and what to expect. The material includes two posters, a business card-sized reminder, and a video at one of the region’s control rooms.

For more information about It’s your call, visit http://www.eastamb.nhs.uk/News-and-Media/Campaigns/its-your-call.htm.

Total number of 999 calls received in March (compared with March 2015):

Bedfordshire: 9,543 (8,251) – 15.66%

Cambridgeshire: 13,597 (10,648) – 27.70%

Essex: 32,221 (25,781) – 24.98%

Hertfordshire: 15,392 (13,616) – 13.04%

Norfolk: 15,514 (12,476) – 24.35%

Suffolk: 11,882 (9,898) – 20.04%