Scottish Ambulance Service was receiving call every 15 seconds in early hours of New Year
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Ambulance staff had an extremely busy night across Scotland on Hogmanay as they dealt with 2,006 calls to Ambulance Control Centres between 7pm on New Year’s Eve and 7am today.
Hogmanay is traditionally one of the busiest nights of the year for the service and during this year’s New Year’s Eve, there was an increase of 2.2 percent compared the same period in 2022.
The most intense period was between 1.30am and 2.45am where staff handled 328 calls – around a call every 15 seconds.
Julie Carter, on-call executive director with the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “The overall level of demand for our service over the festive period has exceeded previous years and Hogmanay was one of our busiest nights of the year.
"Yet again, our staff in our control centres, on the frontline and support staff showed what an incredible group of dedicated professionals they are. They are a true credit to the SAS.
“This winter we continue to face significant challenges as a result of the time of year and continuing long hospital turnaround times at some hospitals which are stopping our staff from getting back out on the road to help other patients in need.
“To help our staff, we’d like to remind people to please only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency.
"If you need urgent care, but it’s not life-threatening, you can call NHS 24 on 111, day or night, or your GP during opening hours.”
