Snow and ice keep ambulance crews busy

The East of England Ambulance Service took a total of 3,700 calls between 11pm on Saturday (February 4), when snow started to hit the region, and 9am this morning (Monday, February 6).

But a spokesman for the service said number of patients requiring hospital treatment following a collision was significantly less than usual.

Alan Murray, director of operations, said: “It has been an incredibly busy weekend and our staff and volunteers have worked exceptionally hard to make sure patients got the care they needed.

“We have had control room, frontline and support staff making their way into work in treacherous conditions, and community first responders going out despite heavy snow and ice.

“Our Rover Rescue 4x4 team have been invaluable in helping us to get to particularly difficult locations.

“We also want to thank the public for helping patients and staff in various incidents.

“But we continue to warn people to take care of themselves and while out driving. Road conditions are potentially more dangerous now with black ice replacing snow so please drive carefully and only do so if you need to.

“We want to keep this weekend’s low number of hospital admissions that way.”