The New Year period was one of the busiest on record for the 111 service, but one of the quietest for 999, according to West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Between 31 December and 2 January, the trust took 16,694 call to the 111 service, up 78.5 per cent on the previous year.

For the same period, the 999 service saw a 15.1 per cent fall in emergency calls, taking 13,113.

It was a similar story on New Years Eve with the quietest year since the trust was set up. 

In total, between 6pm on December 31 and 6am on January 1, the trust took 1,710 calls, compared to 3,002 the previous year - which was the busiest ever.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "I would like to start by thanking the hundreds of staff who worked over this period, many giving up time with their family and friends to work additional shifts. 

"It's not just those on the road, but also the team in our control rooms and also the staff who support these colleagues in areas such as vehicle preparation, mechanics, stores, distribution and IT; it is a real team effort."

They added: "This has been an incredibly challenging period for all parts of the NHS. The ambulance service relies on each part of the health and social care system working together so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community quickly. 

"Sadly, the pressures we are seeing in health and social care lead to long hospital handover delays with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital rather than responding to the next call. The result is that our crews are delayed reaching patients. 

"We are working incredibly hard with all of our NHS and social care partners to prevent these delays, looking at new ways to safely hand over patients quickly so that our crews can respond more rapidly and save more lives."

(Image by Makizox via wikimedia.commons)