Where have all the ambulances gone?

Yesterday evening we needed to call an ambulance.  One of the children at the orchestra fell over a chair and broke their arm.  It was a really bad break so we called 999.

HOW CAN 999 BE ENGAGED?

Eventually we got through and they sent a paramedic car.  A lovely woman took one look and radioed in, "Can I have some assistance please?"   "Ermmm.....there are no ambulances going out of Maldon tonight.  Is it code red 1 or 2?"

DISGRACEFUL!

No ambulances on a Friday night, when England are playing football.  What is going on?

Where have all the ambulances gone?  There used to be ambulances.  Were they all busy with a major incident?  The East of England Ambulance Service website lists; a woman taken to hospital after a road accident in Grays at 2pm, a slightly injured woman taken to Colchester hospital after a traffic accident at 1pm, a cyclist taken to hospital at 3pm and an injured child, from Watford who was taken to hospital 8am.  This doesn't seem very much.

The poor paramedic was very apologetic, "poor boy. We would wait 2-3 hours for an ambulance now.  If you take him I will ring through and make sure you are admitted straight away."

You hear stories about people who call  ambulance because they need someone to pick up their shopping or help them trim their toenails, so I wondered if all the ambulances were out on errands for people. (Read Nee-Naw blog http://www.neenaw.co.uk/ if you want to find out just how much time paramedics waste)
 Then I found this statement on South Central Ambulance Service website:

On average, there is only one ambulance per 23,000 people during the day, and one per 35,000 people at night available in our region. So, make sure you need us before you call.

 I wonder if it is the same in our region and if it's enough. Maldon has a population of 61,000 people so even if there was one ambulance that would be half the amount South Central feel they need to warn their patients about.  What if there was no one to take this child to hospital? What if someone were having a heart attack or a stroke?  It's just not fair to put the paramedics in this position. We couldn't have asked for a quicker initial response or for someone with a better manner - she was wonderful but who can do a job like that without backup?

The good news is that this child did get to hospital in one piece and will be having the bones set this morning.  He was one very brave boy.

Get Well Soon