36% increase in emergency calls to Guernsey's ambulance service in last five years

December was the busiest month, whilst January was the quietest. Credit: ITV Channel TV

The number of emergency calls to Guernsey's ambulance service has increased by 36% over the past five years.

New figures show that paramedics responded to 6,642 urgent calls and transfers in 2022.

Last year saw 2,877 non-emergency patient transfers - an increase of 3.5% from 2021.

On average, 18 emergency cases were dealt with every day, with the most common call types being falls and breathing problems.

While December was the busiest month overall, the highest number of calls in a 24-hour period was recorded in August, with 32 calls made to the service.

Dean de la Mare, Head of Operations, says: "The nature of our work is not always predictable and we can see periods of lower than normal demand followed by periods of high demand and it is not unusual for several 999 calls to come in at once.

"At times of high demand, senior officers can be deployed to frontline operations and off-duty staff are called back to work to provide cover and maintain resilience for the island."

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