Emergency Calls David Davis To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many emergency calls were made to the ambulance service in each region in each of the last five (a) years and (b) new year periods; and how many of these calls were for alcohol-related health problems in each case. Mr. Bradshaw Information on the number of emergency calls made to the ambulance service in each region between 2002-03 and 2006-07 (the latest data available) can be found in the following table: ------------------- |thousand | ------------------- |Ambulance service|2002-03|2003-04|2004-05|2005-06|2006-07| ------------------- |England |4,934.7|5,322.8|5,623.8|5,960.1|6,333.4| ------------------- |North East |244.1|262.7|279.7|291.8|362.0| ------------------- |North West |705.8|751.2|779.7|832.0|887.0| ------------------- |Yorkshire |469.9|503.8|522.6|552.6|555.5| ------------------- |East Midlands |419.7|451.3|473.2|459.7|523.3| ------------------- |West Midlands |411.0|441.5|472.8|511.7|541.5| ------------------- |Staffordshire |121.0|125.0|134.8|156.3|125.3| ------------------- |East of England |436.2|492.1|543.3|581.1|625.6| ------------------- |London |1,030.6|1,088.6|1,153.9|1,231.6|1,288.8| ------------------- |South East Coast |403.3|436.1|460.3|493.0|494.4| ------------------- |South Central |277.8|323.1|330.0|336.6|356.1| ------------------- |Great Western |179.2|189.0|200.9|219.8|232.5| ------------------- |South Western |224.9|246.6|259.5|280.5|328.1| ------------------- |Isle of Wight |11.1|11.8|13.0|13.4|13.3| ------------------- The information in the table is taken from the latest Statistical bulletin “Ambulance Services, England 2006-07”, published by the Information Centre. The data are split by ambulance trust configuration at 31 March 2007. However, it should be noted that there were mergers of the majority of NHS trusts providing ambulance services in 2006 (with the exception of London and the Isle of Wight, where the boundaries did not change). For the other trusts, excluding London and the Isle of Wight, the data up to and including 2005-06 for the new trusts are based upon data provided by the trusts in their previous configurations to arrive at the composite figures shown. In addition, with the exception of Great Western Ambulance Trust (which was established on 1 April 2006) the new trusts were established on 1 July 2006 and therefore 2006-07 data for those trusts consist of similarly mapped composite data from 1 April to 30 June 2007 together with the actual figures returned by the new trusts for the remainder of 2006-07. Further details about how the figures were arrived at can be found at page 1, and the footnote to table 3 of “Ambulance Services, England 2006-07”. There is no defined ‘new year’ period in the collection of the number of emergency calls. Information on the number of emergency calls that were alcohol-related is not collected centrally.