The organisation has reminded Islanders to only make contact in a ‘genuine emergency’, to help ease the demand placed on local response teams.
Around 4,500 calls have been made to the Combined Control Centre so far this year, with 1,009 in April alone requesting ambulance assistance – an increase of 225 when compared to the same month last year.
Senior ambulance officer Gordon Hunt said that, although the organisation would continue to respond with ‘appropriate urgency and priority’, it had seen a rise in the number of ‘lower level symptoms’ being reported.
‘These include calls for generalised illness such as coughs, colds, chest infections and minor injury; putting an unnecessary strain on our teams,’ he said.
‘We have been working extremely hard to protect and support our community during the pandemic and would now ask Islanders to support us by only using the 999 service for a genuine emergency, so that we can focus our efforts on responding to, and caring for, those people who are suffering from life-threatening or life-changing events.’
To help address the additional pressure stemming from the pandemic, St John Ambulance Jersey stepped in last year to support the service – which included jointly crewing front-line ambulances.
Commandery president Diana Mossop said that the charity ‘was always there’ as a back-up and that it was prepared to do so again if necessary.
‘Whenever there is a need we offer up, not just our ambulances, but the experience of our exceptional volunteers,’ she said.
