Record Number Of Ambulance Call-Outs

Tuesday, 31 August 2021 at 16:10

St John Ambulance Service experienced a record high in the number of calls in 24 hours over the bank holiday weekend.

On Saturday (28 August) there were 33 incidents attended to by the service, which is double the daily average.

More than 600 medical emergencies have been recorded so far in August, with 109 of them during the bank holiday weekend between Thursday (26 August) and Monday (30 August).

It makes August the service's busiest month ever.

The previous daily record was 31 calls in April earlier this year.

Chief Ambulance Officer Mark Mapp says it isn't surprising.

“Overall demand for the ambulance service continues to grow. We are experiencing another busy year and the past few days have seen some significant peaks, making August our busiest month of year so far.

This seems to be a general trend, as there is no single reason for the increased demand. We continue to respond to a large number of falls and a range of medical emergencies, as well as mental health cases and traumatic injuries, including road traffic collisions. Due to the dynamic nature of our work it is difficult to predict when the peaks will occur and it is not unusual for several calls to come in at the same time.

I would like to thank the team at the Emergency Ambulance Service for their continued hard work and professionalism. I would also like to acknowledge the dedication of those members of staff who have been called back into work during busy periods to enable us to maintain cover for the island."