NEW figures have revealed the scale of the demand facing the region’s ambulance service following a 21% increase in emergency calls.
The busy start to 2016 continued for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) in March, which received more than 98,000 calls – 18,000 more than March 2015.

The biggest jump in demand occurred in Cambridgeshire, which received 27% more 999 calls, followed by Essex at almost 25% and Norfolk with a 24% rise.
The most common calls were for falls and patients with breathing difficulties and chest pain.

Rob Ashford, Acting Director of Service Delivery for EEAST, 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.”

Total number of 999 calls the Trust 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%