New Years Eve celebrations in Central London was ‘relatively successful and without any major incidents’ as London Ambulance Service and St. John Ambulance Service provided a full scale ‘on the ground’ medical event operations to the thousands of revellers who turned out to see the Fireworks display.
Pics: (London Ambulance Service)
Ahead of this year’s celebrations, the NHS and London Ambulance Service (LAS) launched the #EatDrinkBeSafe campaign on social media which encouraged people to be sensible when out celebrating over the Christmas and New Year. Prior to last nights celebrations, all medicals services were briefed as part of the event management plan.
The Central London medical event operation involved every aspect of the London Ambulance Service, the Saint John Ambulance Service, London Air Ambulance, Barts NHS Health Trust and other medical voluntary groups. Nine St. John Ambulance Treatment Centres were located across Central London which dealt with the majority of minor medical incidents.
146 people were treated at treatment centres last night compared to 200 at last year’s event.
Both the Ambulance Control Headquarters and the on-site Event Ambulance Control were extremely busy from about 7pm last night as control operators dealt with hundreds of emergency and non-emergency calls from across London.
Pic: (St. John Ambulance)
By midnight the calls increased dramatically and between 12 midnight and 5am, 2,221 emergency calls were received by London Ambulance Service and St. John Ambulance. That’s almost 500 calls an hour which, according to LAS, is double the normal intake.
By 1am, 44% of incidents attended to were alcohol related. Six people were treated at the event, and five were taken to hospital before 3am. In December 2014, the NHS London Ambulance Service attended to an average of 163 alcohol related incidents every day in December alone.
Two Booze Buses were put into operation which was coordinated by paramedics on foot through the Event Ambulances. The London Metropolitan Police and London Borough Council put a number of road closures in place around Central London at four colour coded stages: Blue (2pm), Orange (5pm), Green (8pm) and Red (10pm).
Overall, it was a safe and enjoyable night for all emergency personnel in Central London!
