West Midlands Ambulance Service takes 4,700 calls on its busiest ever day

Operators for the emergency service, that covers Shropshire and part of Mid Wales, revealed that crews were busier than the same day in 2016, with hundreds more phone calls received.

Jo Bird, a West Midlands Ambulance Service 999 dispatcher, tweeted: "Final count folks. A whopping 4,722 calls answered on the first day of the year, wow – fantastic efforts from all staff at West Midlands Ambulance Services.

"To my knowledge – 800 more than last year."

The service also received 3,421 calls on Christmas Day, an increase of 13.5 per cent, or 387 more than on December 25, 2015.

On Christmas Eve 999 dispatchers handled 3,296 calls, with an average of more than 137 calls per hour.

It comes as London Ambulance Service, among the biggest in the country, had to use pen and paper to log emergency calls on New Year's Eve after technical issues in the control room, delaying response times.

It is understood the computer system crashed, forcing staff to record details manually for nearly five hours on one of the busiest nights of the year.

Trust chief executive, Anthony Marsh, said: "I am very grateful and proud of all the staff and volunteers that worked through this period. While the majority of people were enjoying time with family and friends, my staff were working 24 hours a day to keep the public of the West Midlands safe.

"Over the years we have developed incredibly detailed plans and made preparations for this incredibly busy period. Once again, that planning has paid off and we have met this challenge and continued to provide a very high standard of service to patients. This would not have been possible without the hard work, dedication and passion of my staff and I am extremely grateful for their continued efforts."

West Mercia Police also reported a busy night for its operations and communications centre staff who received 321 emergency 999 calls between 7pm and 7am.

It also revealed it had received one 999 call every minute by 2am.

Meanwhile, firefighters in the region issued a warning after a series of false alarms on New Year's Eve. Whitchurch firefighters were called to three incidents which turned out to be false alarms.

West Mercia OCC tweeted: "Busy New Year's Eve night for OCC staff. 321 emergency 999 calls between 7pm and 7am, that's more than we usually get in a day!"

In January 2016, the first 999 call for the ambulance service came in just 30 seconds into the New Year, with the busiest hour between 1am and 2am as more alcohol-related calls came in.