AMBULANCE crews across the region responded to more than 1,600 emergency calls overnight between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Of those calls, 634 were between 8pm and midnight, with 68 of them in Worcestershire.
Those figures equated to a seven per cent increase in 999 requests, compared to the same time last year and there were more ambulance crews than there had ever been for a New Year’s Eve in the West Midlands.
Between midnight and 4am on New Year’s Day, there were 995 ‘999’ calls, an increase of 15 per cent on the same time last year.
The first emergency call of 2016 came in just 30 seconds after midnight on January 1 and the busiest hour for staff was between 1am and 2am as more alcohol-related calls came in including assaults, falls and unconscious patients.
A sad part of the evening came when would-be thieves smashed the window of an ambulance in south Birmingham in a bid to steal the vehicle’s built-in satnav.
That incident took place in Elliott Road, Selly Oak, at 10pm on New Year’s Eve.
Fortunately the crew were not injured and continued their shift in a replacement ambulance.
West Midlands Ambulance Service Chief Executive Anthony Marsh said: “I am very grateful and very proud of all my staff that worked through the year and through the night to keep everyone safe, putting the public before themselves and their families.
“I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.”
