Ambulance service responds to 700 calls in six hours.

Byline: BY VICKY ANDERSON Daily Post Staff

THE region's ambulance service has reported one of its busiest New Year's Eve nights ever, with more than 700 callouts.

Across Cheshire and Merseyside, emergency calls for the entire 24-hour period of December 31 totalled 1,045, according to the North West Ambulance Service.

But the busiest period fell between 11pm on New Year's Eve and 5am on January 1, where, during this peak time, the number of emergency 999 calls soared to 712.

A large number of incidents attended were alcohol-related accidents and injuries, but there were also call-outs to a shooting and a number of car accidents.

In the early hours of New Year's Day, a teenage girl was arrested after attempting to break into a locked ambulance that was responding to a call in south Liverpool.

Deputy chief executive Bob Williams said: "New Year's Eve is always one of our busiest nights and this year is no exception. However, we anticipated this surge in demand and managed it by increasing resources.

"All our staff worked hard both in control rooms managing emergency calls and deploying vehicles and on frontline vehicles, tending to patients.

"It is their dedication and commitment that enables us to continue to deliver an excellent service to the people of Cheshire & Merseyside. I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and commitment."

Incidents included two serious road traffic accidents in Rock Ferry, in Wirral, and County Road, in Walton. and the casualties were taken to Arrowe Park and the Royal Liverpool Hospitals.

At 5.30am on New Year's Day, crews attended a reported shooting outside the Stanley pub in Robson Street, Anfield, with police, but the victim had already been taken to hospital by car.

Mr Williams said: "NWAS received far fewer inappropriate calls which meant ambulance crews were able to concentrate on genuine call-outs.

NATIONALLY, the emergency services reported an "incredibly busy" start to 2008 - with one ambulance trust dealing with more than 1,400 calls in just five hours.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said its operations centre at its headquarters in Brierley Hill, near Dudley, received 100 emergency calls in the first 45 minutes of the New Year. A spokeswoman for the service said that the majority of the calls were to drink-related incidents, including assaults.

"The vast majority of calls received were to alcohol fuelled incidents, including people collapsing, falling over and injuring themselves, and also to fights and assaults in pubs and bars in the main centres throughout the region," the spokeswoman said.

The London Ambulance Service reported an extremely busy night.

Between midnight and 4am yesterday, the service dealt with 1,825 calls, an increase of 16% on the previous year.

Assistant director of operations Jason Killens said: "The majority of calls we have responded to have been alcohol-related, which we always anticipate to be the case on what is our busiest night of the year.

Ambulance staff in Scotland, meanwhile, handled 2,000 calls in 12 hours.

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