In March we reported that ambulances and emergency response vehicles were deployed more than 1,500 times to five patients in 12 months, and 8,303 emergency calls were made by the five most frequent UK callers.
The figures were released after a Freedom of Information request to the UK's 14 ambulance trusts by Matt Graveling. You can read the questions from the FOI request here
- CSV: Frequent Caller percentage - with a care plan in place (England) from NHS England: Ambulance Quality Indicators Data 2017-18
- CSV: Average job time
- CSV: Busiest month, Oct 16-Nov 17
- Excel sheet: five Most frequent callers by region; total 999 calls received by region; busiest month by service; average job time by service
- Spokesman, NHS
- Vicki Nash, head of policy and campaigns for Mind (mental health charity)
- Paul Jefferies, assistant director of operations at South Central Ambulance Service
- Spokesman, West Midlands Ambulance service (online only)
- Spokesman, Department of Health
- Kelly Taylor, Emergency Call Taker, South Central Ambulance Service (broadcast only)
- Jodie Launchbury, Emergency Call Taker, South Central Ambulance Service (broadcast only)
- Tim Churchill, Demand Management Lead, South Central Ambulance Service (broadcast only)
- Margaret, Patient (broadcast only)
- Susannah Dalton, Clinical Support Desk Team Leader, South Central Ambulance Service (broadcast only)
- Bar chart: Most frequent callers to ambulance services Nov 2016-Oct 2017
A frequent caller is defined as an adult (18+) years who makes 5 or more emergency calls related to individual episodes of care in a month, or 12 or more emergency calls related to individual episodes of care in 3 months, from a private dwelling. (Please note, each trust's definition may vary slightly). The average 'job time' for an ambulance being given a job, visiting a patient, and becoming available for the next call is 1 hour and 13 minutes. The Excel spreadsheet lists how many times a crew was deployed to a prolific frequent caller.