The South Western Ambulance Service was dealing with 38% more incidents over the Christmas period, new figures show.
The service dealt with 3,205 incidents on 27th December alone – 883 more than that recorded on the same Saturday in 2013. It said that the activity will be reviewed to assist with future planning.
Throughout Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, along with the weekend in-between, the service responded to 17,463 incidents via telephone. During the same six days in 2013, 14,262 incidents were dealt with.
The BBC reported that, on 27th December, the service came close to declaring a “major incident” – a term which defines any occurrence which presents a serious threat to the health of a community or requires specialist arrangements to be implemented by health staff. However it said in the following days that all was back to normal.
A spokeswoman for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said: “Demand has steadily increased throughout the year for all NHS services.
“We know Christmas and New Year are the busiest periods of the year and robust plans are put in place to ensure we can manage that demand.
“This year the NHS also saw an even greater surge in demand during the weekend between Christmas and New Year.
“As always, we will be reviewing this activity to ensure we can continue to plan and respond to the needs of our patients.”
The ambulance service covers Somerset, Gloucestershire, Bath and North Somerset, Wiltshire, South Gloucestershire, Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and the Isles of Scilly.