Ambulance call-outs dropped by five in 2024
Ambulances in Guernsey were called out just five times fewer in 2024 than they were in 2023.
There were an average of 18 call-outs a day, totalling 6,852 during the year, including emergency and urgent calls and transfers.
On one day in December, Ambulance and Rescue had a record-equalling 36 cases in 24 hours, and it also experienced episodes of high demand during the Christmas and New Year period, with a peak in calls on the nights of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Emergency crews responded to 26 cases on Christmas Day between 8am and 4pm, and six incidents in three hours just after midnight on New Year’s Day.
Ambulance and Rescue head of operations Dean de la Mare said the service experienced periods of high demand and periods when call volumes dropped due to the ‘dynamic’ nature of ambulance work.
‘At busy times 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,’ he said.
It would be ‘very rare’ for ambulances to have to queue outside the Emergency Department, but on the few occasions it did happen there were plans in place, which included sending a hospital ambulance liaison officer to the hospital to assist with the triaging and safe handover of patients, he said.
In Guernsey, 999 calls are answered and categorised by the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre using a clinical triage system which ensures the most appropriate response for all cases.
The most serious and life-threatening cases – known as category one – are quickly identified, so the nearest ambulance resource can be dispatched immediately.
Category two and three cases also get a blue light response, with a target time of 14 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.
Category three and four are for less urgent cases, and are responded to at road speed.
