2024 Ambulance demand
10 January 2025
Demand for Guernsey’s ambulance service remained steady in 2024 with the total number of calls almost equalling the figure for 2023.
Ambulance and Rescue responded to a total of 6852 cases last year, just 5 less than the previous 12 months. Therefore, the daily average of 18 calls a day remains approximately the same. The figure includes emergency and urgent calls and transfers.
Head of Operations, Dean de la Mare said: “Due to the dynamic nature of ambulance work the ambulance service experiences periods of high demand and periods when call volume dropped below average. On one day in December we had a record equalling 36 cases in 24 hours. At times like this all ambulance crews can be committed to jobs, with ambulance managers redeployed to frontline duties and additional staff called back into work to maintain emergency cover for the island.”
Ambulance and Rescue experienced episodes of high demand during the Christmas and New Year period, with a peak in calls on Christmas Eve night, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Between 0800-1600 on Christmas Day emergency crews responded to 26 cases, then on New Year’s Day there were 6 incidents in 3 hours just after midnight.
“It is very rare for ambulances to have to queue outside the Emergency Department, but on the few occasions when this does happen we have plans in place which include sending a Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officer to the PEH to assist with the triaging and safe handover of patients,” he added.
In Guernsey, 999 calls are answered and categorised by the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre (JESCC) using a world-class clinical triage system which ensures the most appropriate response for all cases. The most serious and life-threatening Category 1 cases are quickly identified, so the nearest ambulance resource can be dispatched immediately. Category 2 cases also get a blue light response, with a target of 14 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. Category 3 and 4 are for less urgent cases and are responded to at road speed. At times of high demand it may take us longer to get to these cases.
