“Last night was extremely busy,” she toldToday. “We actually reached a record-breaking day in NSW Ambulance. It’s the first time we’ve had this many calls in 126 years.”
Inspector Armstrong said COVID cases added to the usual burden of call-outs on the last night of the year.
“We had the usual business of New Year’s Eve – alcohol-related cases,accidents,obviously mischief – and then we had COVID on top of that,so it was very,very busy for all of our crew,” she said.
Inspector Armstrong also warned there were a “lot of exhausted paramedics”,and said the ambulance service was receiving time-wasting calls from people wanting COVID-19 test results.
“We’ve got lots of exhausted paramedics out there at the moment,especially now it’s summer time,” she said. “It’s holidays,we’re right in that Christmas-New Year’s season,and they’re under a lot of pressure going to a lot of Triple 0 calls that sometimes are unnecessary.”
She added:“If you just want a result for a COVID test,don’t call us.”