Hato Hone St John says demand for ambulances has reached another record high, with pressure expected to remain high this week as the service continues to operate under a major incident declaration.
A record 2606 calls for an ambulance were made through 111 on Friday, surpassing the previous record of 2562 recorded just six days earlier on August 8.
Demand remained high over the weekend, with St John receiving 2507 calls on Saturday and 2268 yesterday.
Last week, the ambulance service declared a major incident response and activated its emergency operations centre for the first time since Covid-19, citing extreme pressure from seasonal illness.
Director of ambulance operations Doug Gallagher explains what a major incident response means and why the service has activated it. (Source: Breakfast)
Doug Gallagher, Hato Hone St John director of ambulance operations, said ambulance availability was generally holding across most of the country despite the record demand.
“Our people are continuing to respond effectively, and emergency ambulance help remains available. We are continuing to prioritise patients with life-threatening and time-critical conditions," he said.
“However, we expect workload to remain very high this week, and some patients with less urgent conditions may wait longer than usual to receive an ambulance."
The greatest pressure was currently in Auckland, Gallagher said, particularly during the evening and overnight.
Auckland accounted for almost a third (29.5%) of emergency ambulance incidents nationwide over the past week.
Demand in the city peaked on Thursday, when frontline teams received 566 incidents, followed by 552 on Saturday.
Gallagher said high demand could coincide with delays transferring patients into hospital care, keeping ambulance crews occupied for longer and reducing the number available to respond to other incidents.
"The most common reasons for calling 111 for an ambulance included referrals from a health practitioner, chest pain, breathing problems, falls, and people feeling generally or medically unwell," he added.
St John reiterated that there was no single cause behind the surge in demand, with winter demand typically driven by a mix of seasonal respiratory illnesses, injuries and other emergencies.
Gallagher encouraged people not to put off calling 111 if someone was seriously ill or injured, despite the record high figures.
"Please do not delay calling 111 in an emergency because you have heard that ambulance services are busy," he said.
St John says it has hired more than a dozen Aussie paramedics in the past 18 months. (Source: 1News)
“If you have called 111 and the patient’s condition worsens, call us again and tell us what has changed. This allows us to reassess their condition and clinical priority."
People with non-emergency health concerns were encouraged to consider other services, including GPs, pharmacists, urgent care providers or Healthline.
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