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LONDON AMBULANCE SERVICE
For the first year since the inception of the National Health Service there was a very
slight reduction in the number of patients conveyed by the combined general and
ancillary services and, for the second consecutive year, there was a drop in the journeys
undertaken and mileage covered by the ambulance service as a whole. For every 100
patients transported in 1947 (the year preceding the inauguration of the National Health
Service) the ambulance service as a whole conveyed 459 patients in 1957. Similarly,
for every 100 miles covered and 100 journeys undertaken in 1947, vehicles attached to
the ambulance service as a whole travelled 291 miles and undertook 297 journeys in
1955, 285 miles and 295 journeys in 1956 and 277 miles and 291 journeys in 1957.
The expansion in demand for ambulance transport during the last decade has emphasised
the need for the greatest care and economy in making the maximum use of the available
resources of men and vehicles. The success of these efforts can be gauged from the figures
given in table (iv)* from which it will be noted that since 1949, the first full year following
the introduction of the National Health Service, the average mileage per patient in the
general section of the Service has been reduced from 7.74 to 4.16 and the average miles
per journey from 10.05 to 8.05, while the number of patients carried per 100 journeys
increased from 130 to 194.
Accident
section
Forty-six ambulances are deployed at the headquarters station and at 19 accident ambulance
stations to deal with all emergency work and some of these are used, as opportunity
offers, to relieve the pressure on the general section, principally by undertaking
some of the more urgent removals normally dealt with by that section. Each day during
1957 an average of 267 '999' calls were received in the headquarters control room of
which 66 per cent. were made by members of the public. The busiest day of the week
was Friday with an average of 291 calls throughout the year, the heaviest demand being
in December. At Christmas and New Year the accident section is augmented to meet
the anticipated seasonal increase in emergency calls and during the peak period from
2 p.m. on Christmas Eve to 2 a.m. on Christmas morning, no less than 382 4 999 ' calls
were received, i.e., an average of one call every two minutes.
Table (ii) shows an analysis or the various categories or emergency calls and indicates
that the highest incidence of emergency calls is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and from 10 p.m.
to midnight; the most dangerous periods for street accidents are between 5 p.m. and
7 p.m. and between 11 p.m. and midnight, and home accidents, as one would expect,
occur most frequently between the hours of 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. when household
activities are at their highest. Calls for the removal of maternity cases to hospitals and
nursing homes still constitute the greatest single emergency demand and the majority
of these removals occur during the night hours.
The total number of journeys undertaken by the accident section (corresponding
to the total number of calls received) showed a slight reduction for the first time since
the war although there was a further increase in the number of casualties removed
(table (i)). This is accounted for by the fact that the number of journeys made for
the transport of analgesia apparatus, which is held at all accident ambulance stations for
use in home confinements, has dwindled considerably as a result of the introduction
into the midwifery service of the more portable Trilene apparatus which the mid wives
carry with them.
An analysis of street accidents according to age and sex is shown in table (iii), from
which it will be seen that the heaviest incidence for males and females occurs between
the ages of 15 and 24 years. The average time to reach the scene of street accidents, to
which there were 17,704 calls in 1957, was 5.8 minutes and the casualties were admitted
to hospital within an average of 17.3 minutes from the time the initial call for assistance
was received.
* The tables to which reference is made in this section are at pages 78 to 80.
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