2021 summer months are three of LAS’ top five busiest ever

June, July and August of this year were three of the top five busiest months on record for London Ambulance Service in terms of 999 calls taken. Since the spring, the number of 999 and 111 calls taken by our teams has increased significantly and call figures have remained high throughout the summer months. July 2021 was our second busiest month on record – second only to March 2020 where we saw the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. August and June were our fourth and fifth busiest ever months respectively. Before the pandemic, a usual busy day would be around 5,500 calls. What is different this year is that the number of calls to our 999 control rooms rose to 6,000 a day in the spring. The daily call rate figure has stayed around or above 6,000 ever since and has, on occasions, even gone above 7,000 calls in a 24 hour period. It’s never been this consistently busy over a whole summer. Demand this high for this long and at this time of year is unprecedented.