Evening Gazette
MIDDLESBROUGH, England — Paramedics had a busy December dealing with record levels of emergencies.
North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) said the number of incidents last month rocketed to unprecedented levels - up by more than 1,000 for the same time last year.
The busiest period was the five hours from 10pm on Boxing Day, with NEAS received 1,317 calls - 842 calls more than the same time last year which represents a 177% increase in 999 ambulance demand.
During Christmas week, NEAS received 8,726 calls - compared to 7,060 in 2009. In all, NEAS attended 26,032 incidents in December 2010 - compared to 25,068 in December 2009.
NEAS said some of the spike in demand was a result of an increase in patients reporting respiratory problems, along with slips trips and falls due to the recent cold weather.
But Paul Liversidge, NEAS director of operations, said it was still difficult to explain why calls reached such high levels.
He said: “This is an unprecedented volume of calls relating to all sorts of reasons and difficult to understand why it happened. What I can say is the NEAS staff working during this busy period were magnificent, despite the intense pressure. They pulled out all the stops to ensure patients got an ambulance as quickly as possible.”
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