Recent figures reveal that there has been a large increase in the number of emergency calls received by the ambulance service.
According to the Ambulance Service Union, two possible reasons exist for this increase: the changes to doctors’ out-of-hours services, and a recent campaign by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) that encourages people who are experiencing chest pains to dial 999.
Dr Mike Knapton, Director of Prevention and Care, BHF, commented: “We are glad that more people experiencing heart attack symptons are calling 999. Our campaign is designed to raise awareness of this crucial issue because we know from hard evidence that too many heart attack patients delay too long before calling 999, and may die as a result.
The campaign has the full backing of all UK ambulance services, and we have already heard stories of individuals who called 999 quicker because of our campaign.”
