East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS) received 965 emergency and urgent calls in the first seven hours of 2025. Of these, over 600 were received by 03.30 hours on 1 January 2025.
EMAS Head of Emergency Operations Centre, Gary Lockley said:
“As anticipated, there was a significant increase in emergency calls received during the first few hours of 2025.
“Colleagues working in our Nottingham and Lincoln based emergency control centres did a tremendous job. Calls received from across the East Midlands were answered within an average of six seconds during the first seven hours of the day.
“999 calls were for a variety of reasons including cardiac arrest, people feeling acutely unwell due to a medical problem, and following road traffic collisions.
“There has been a noticeable increase in the number of calls received due to people being intoxicated having consumed excessive amounts of alcohol; in some of these cases, individuals had also fallen causing injury.”
The NHS expects to be busy throughout the coming days, and people are asked to use services wisely. Treatment and advice for illness and injury that is not life-threatening can be sought from other healthcare services.
EMAS Strategic Commander, Jim Richardson said:
“We had a busy start to 2025. Demand on our service and the emergency hospital departments across the East Midlands continues to be very high.
“As many welcomed in the new year, in addition to the tremendous work of our control centre colleagues, our emergency and urgent ambulance colleagues, non-emergency patient transport teams, and volunteer responders worked incredibly hard to respond to patient need – often in the most challenging and at times hostile environments. They have been supported by managers and on-call officers liaising with staff working in the busy hospitals, other healthcare facilities, and blue light services to ensure a collaborative response to the significant increase in demand.
“On behalf of our EMAS leadership team, I thank them all for their continued commitment to provide the best possible care.
“During this exceptionally busy period, and to allow us to reach people who really need our ambulances with life-saving equipment and clinicians on board, we urge people to use NHS services appropriately.
“If you’re not sure where to go, you can find services near you via the NHS.uk website, or via 111 online or by calling 111.
“Our ambulance service is for people experiencing a medical emergency. This includes cardiac arrest, chest pain, where a patient isn’t conscious or breathing, catastrophic bleeding, or suspected stroke.”
Weather warnings have been issued for various parts of the region over the coming days. Therefore, in addition to people taking care of their health and wellbeing, they are asked to pay attention to the alerts issued. Please plan ahead to keep safe, and take essentials with you eg your regular medication to support management of long-term conditions, when venturing out for excursions and visits.