It's 'Black Friday' and Shropshire ambulance crews are braced for surge in 999 calls

West Midlands Ambulance Service has seen another steep increase in the amount of calls it deals with this year, with this weekend expected to be its busiest yet.

Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer Steve Wheaton said that while the service generally expects to receive about 3,000 calls a day it received about 3,550 each day last weekend and is expecting around 3,800 this weekend .

Mr Wheaton said: "The weekend we are about to go into is known as Black Friday throughout the health circle.

"It's the last weekend before Christmas, people get paid early – the whole world seems to go mad.

"It is always busy this time of year but we are seeing the point where we are struggling to stay ahead of the curve."

But Mr Wheaton says WMAS has been preparing for the busy period.

He said: "We have recruited an extra 326 front line staff this year – paramedics out on the road – and 30 extra control room staff.

"But we are coping. It is foreseeable but we are under significant pressure, staff working flat out and on an average day we are putting out 30-50 extra resources."

WMAS released figures earlier this week showing an 18 per cent rise in the number of calls over five years based on figures from the same week in 2010.

In Shropshire, the service took 1,444 calls over the seven day period compared to 1,220 in 2010.

The increase in calls has been split, according to the ambulance officer, between genuine and unnecessary calls.

Mr Wheaton said that drastic weather changes are behind some of the calls, with bright sunny days switching to below-freezing temperatures causing chest problems for many.

But many callers have pre-existing conditions and have gone out in the cold, in a smoking environment and forgotten medication or inhalers.

Mr Wheaton said: "About 50 per cent are another group of people. I am not telling people not to go out and drink. What I am saying is I also go out and have a drink, but I make it home, I don't have to call the emergency services, I haven't assaulted someone and I haven't been found the next day in a pool of blood and sick."

A mixture of the cold weather and alcohol has led to a sharp increase in the number of calls, although it is not known what could be causing the year-on-year increase.

"If you knew the answer to that it would solve a lot of problems," said Mr Wheaton.

"People are calling 999 rather than 111 asking for advice first.

"Even on Christmas Day you can ring 111 and they will have a list of pharmacies open, they can direct to out of hours or advise if you do need to go to hospital."

Mr Wheaton has asked people to take control of their own health, using the out-of-hours services when necessary and stocking up on medication before running out and having to call an ambulance – hoping this could slash some of the calls.

But the ambulance service also receives time-wasting calls from people hoping to abuse the system.

Mr Wheaton said: "Somebody went to a Christmas party recently and called 999 for a lift home because they hadn't brought enough cash – that takes one of our call takers out of action.

"Take enough money to get home, take medication with you and do not think about verbally or physically assaulting our staff – we have a zero tolerance policy that will be enforced."