Ambulances respond to person choking on vampire fangs and costume on fire as emergency calls soar on Halloween

The North West Ambulance Service reported that Saturday evening was as busy as New Years’ Eve with a 13 per cent increase in calls compared to Halloween last year.

There was also an increase of 20 per cent in potentially life-threatening calls.

Emergency medical calls included assaults in pubs and clubs, a Halloween costume on fire, a person choking on a pair of plastic vampire fangs, stuck contact lenses, someone who fell getting into a taxi, broken fingers and vomiting after drinking But at the same time 4,052 potentially life-threatening calls could have struggled to get through to operators.

Derek Cartwright, director of operations at the North West Ambulance Service, said: “Our crews were kept extremely busy dealing with cut hands, head injuries, assault injuries and those who had simply too much alcohol – this ties up our resources for those who urgently need us and unfortunately there were genuine cases this weekend where people had to wait longer than we would have liked for an ambulance response.

“While we do prioritise resources according to clinical need we do still have a duty of care to those with head injuries or who are unresponsive regardless as to the reason why but many of these situations can be avoided if people took grater care of themselves and each other.

“We don’t want to stop people having fun but we only have a finite number of resources – including those who answer the falls – and to have phone lines tied up for minor avoidable incidents is frustrating for staff and also puts those people with serious conditions at risk.

“We are fast approaching the Christmas party season and would like the public to celebrate the festive season responsibly and without injury.

“The surge in calls was also seen by our neighbouring ambulance trusts so we don’t believe this was unique to the North West but it was disappointing to see so many alcohol and assault related calls.”