LHO : Ambulance Callouts

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Lifestyle & behaviour - Ambulance callouts

Overview
Local data
Key points

Overview

The London Ambulance Service (LAS) NHS Trust records details of every ambulance call out. Information is not recorded for every person, just for each incident. The ambulance crew at the scene assigns the incident type. The injury incident type categories are:

Fall (accidental and international)
Fall from a height (accidental and intentional)
Road traffic accident
Other accident
Plane/Helicopter accident
Train/tube incident
Fire incident (accidental and intentional)
Assault
Self-harm (accidental and intentional)
Illness known
Illness unknown
Obstetric
Police incident
Other incident
Psychiatric problems
Inter hospital transfer
Neo natal/SCBU

Overdose is not identified as an incident type. The ambulance crew also assigns an illness type for every call. Illness types relevant to drug poisoning in London are overdose and poisoning. However, there is little information to distinguish between the types of poisons or drugs used. Therefore we provide data here for all overdoses and poisonings, but not all of these will have involved illicit drug use.

Drugs & Health Behaviour - Ambulance Call Outs - Datasets & Resources

Date	Title	Format	View
8 Nov 2004	Number of Ambulance Call Outs, Borough Level, 2001 - 2003

Key Points

The number of ambulance call outs for drug overdose has risen from 14,914 in 2001 to 15,721 in 2003 (Tables 1 and 2).
Where the gender was recorded, approximately 55% of callouts were in males and 45% in females (in each of the three years) (Tables 1 and 2).
In each year, the highest proportion of callouts for males were between the ages of 25 and 34 (approximately 30%) and for females in those who were under 25 (approximately 30%). (Tables 1 and 2)
The number of ambulance call outs for poisoning has risen from 816 in 2001 to 870 in 2003 (Table 3).
The call out rate for drug overdose in London has risen slightly over the three year period from 199 per 100,000 population at risk in 2001 to 209 per 100,000 population at risk in 2003 (Table 4).
In each of the three years the highest call out rates for drug overdose were found in Camden and Lambeth (both around 325 callouts per 100,000 population at risk). The call out rate was lowest in the City of London (approximately 50 call outs per 100,000 population at risk) (Table 4).
In each of the years, the majority of ambulance call outs for drug overdose were recorded as ‘self harm’ (approximately 55%), however, the ambulance crew make no distinction between accidental and intentional self harm (Table 5).