Date published: 6 July 2020

East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) would like to thank everyone who followed the advice of the emergency services and acted responsibly on 4 July as pubs, bars and restaurants reopened.

EMAS received 2,375 emergency and urgent calls on 4 July – 665 fewer calls than the same Saturday last year, and more than 1,000 fewer calls than on New Year’s Day 2020.

Ahead of the lockdown easing, we had appealed to our communities to be sensible, know their limits and continue to social distance, and we were delighted to see that most people followed our advice.

Sadly, some people still chose to drink to excess, and required treatment from our ambulance crews and transporting to hospital emergency departments.

Pete Ripley, Associate Director of Operations, said: “Our teams across the organisation worked hard in the lead up to 4 July to ensure that we were well prepared for the reopening of the pubs, bars and restaurants.

“Many of our staff were on duty and, because most of the public listened to our advice, they were able to respond to patients across the East Midlands who were experiencing genuine life-threatening emergencies and needed our help.

“I would like to thank all our ambulance crews, volunteers and teams in our Emergency Operations Centres who were out responding to our patients over the weekend, and our mechanics, support staff and administration teams who enabled them to do so.”

EMAS is continuing to urge people to use only use 999 for urgent and immediately life-threatening conditions, such as:

  • Suspected strokes
  • Breathing difficulties
  • Heavy bleeding/bleeding that won’t stop
  • Loss of consciousness.

People are being asked to continue to seek out the most appropriate service for their conditions. Help with less serious conditions is available from GP surgeries, pharmacies, by dialling NHS111 or visiting NHS111 online, or by visiting local walk-in centres.

If you think you may have Coronavirus, please contact NHS 111 either over the phone or using their online service. The main symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature, a new continuous cough and a loss of smell or taste.