Edinburgh emergency calls slightly down on last year
Hogmanay was the busiest night of the year for the Scottish Ambulance Service, which dealt with 2,394 calls to its 999 centres across Scotland. Call volumes were 2% lower than last year’s total of 2,443 but the service experienced intense periods of high demand, managing over 250 calls per hour between midnight and 7am.
Additional call handlers, dispatchers and ambulance crews were on duty to deal with the surge in demand across the country, and Cardonald – which covers the West and South West of the country – was the busiest of the three Ambulance Control Centres (ACC). Inverness experienced a 16% increase in call volumes in the north of Scotland.
Between midnight and 7am demand was particularly high across Scotland and during that time ambulance control rooms dealt with 1,829 emergency calls, which was 76% of total demand.
Pauline Howie, Chief Executive, Scottish Ambulance Service said: “As always, Hogmanay was our busiest night of the year and our teams dealt with a high volume of calls across the country. While there were slightly fewer calls overall than last year, the activity at times was intense, with 76% of the workload occurring between midnight and 7am.
“All of the teams in our control rooms and out on the streets demonstrated their professionalism and commitment, doing a fantastic job of delivering care to those in need.”
Totals for each of the three Ambulance Control Centres between 7pm on 31 December and 7am on 1 January were:
(Previous year totals in brackets)
Edinburgh – 971 calls (1019)
Cardonald – 983 calls (1045)
Inverness – 440 calls (379)
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