Guernsey ambulance service responds to 6,000 calls in 2022

BBC Guernsey AmbulanceBBC
Guernsey's ambulance service reported December as its busiest month in 2022, and its quietest as January

Guernsey's ambulance service responded to more than 6,000 emergency calls, urgent calls and transfers in 2022.

The service attended 6,642 calls, a decrease by 2.4% compared to 2021, but similar to figures in 2020.

It said it experienced a year-on-year increase of 3.5% in non-emergency patient transfers, with 2,877 cases in 2022.

Head of Operations Dean de la Mare said it was "one of the best performing services in the British Isles".

He said: "For the highest category of call the nearest ambulance resource will be dispatched, but for less urgent cases the target response time can be up to two hours. Some non-urgent cases may also be referred to a doctor."

Mr de la Mare said: "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 front-line operations and off-duty staff are called back to work to provide cover and maintain resilience for the island."

Figures showed the service attended an average of 18 emergency and urgent cases per day, and its busiest day saw 32 calls in 24 hours in August.

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