Extreme pressure forces ambulance trust to turn to private services

The East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) has revealed that it was forced to turn to private ambulance services as the number of calls it received on New Year’s Day was over 50 per cent above normal levels.

The trust had to move to level 4 on the national Resource Escalation Action Plan (REAP) because of the rise in calls, which was 12 per cent higher than the amount of calls it received the year before.

On average, EEAST gets around 3,000 calls a day for services, but on 1 January the trust was hit with more than 4,800 calls - adding to the 4,100 that came in the day before.

Explaining the decision to turn to other providers, the trust said it had been under ‘extreme pressure with demand’ every day since New Year’s Eve.

The news comes amid rising fears and winter pressures, with the National Emergency Pressures Panel (NEPP) now advising trusts national to postpone elective care and outpatient appointments.

A spokesperson said: “We are using private ambulance services to help increase our ambulance cover.

“We only utilise CQC-accredited private ambulance services, who have also gone through our own trust accreditation and we have maximised all available resources from these providers currently.”