New Year brought new challenges for the ambulance service responsible for covering Lichfield and Burntwood.

West Midlands Ambulance Service received 1,269 calls to the 999 line in the first three hours of 2010 yesterday (January 1) – the same number received in the first five hours of 2009.

By 5am on New Year’s Day, 288 calls were taken from the Staffordshire region.

The ambulance service said many of the calls were for alcohol-related incidents including people collapsing, falling over and injuring themselves and fights and assaults. The busiest time was from midnight until 3am during which time a 999 call was received on average every nine seconds.

West Midlands Ambulance Service’s Chief Executive Anthony Marsh said:

“The way in which the Service dealt with the very significant increase in the number of 999 calls is a tribute to all the officers and staff of West Midlands Ambulance Service.”

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.