The number of 999 calls in London has risen over the past week, with London Ambulance Service (LAS) reporting its three busiest days of 2025 in a row.<\/p>\n
The service said the 20% increase included more calls from people with breathing difficulties due to viral infections and respiratory illnesses such as the flu.<\/p>\n
NHS figures indicate fewer than half of eligible people in London have had the free flu vaccine this season.<\/p>\n
Experts have predicted the worst flu season for a decade, fuelled by a new type of a flu virus.<\/p>\n
LAS strategic commander Laurence Cowderoy said the service had prepared for winter for many months, but still urged Londoners to \u00ab\u00a0only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
He said the high call rate was \u00ab\u00a0more typically seen on New Year’s Eve\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Operations to cope with demands over the winter period include:<\/p>\n
Karen Bonner, the regional chief nurse for London, said NHS staff had already seen the impact of the new flu strain with people coming into accident and emergency departments with symptoms.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We know it’s a pretty bad flu this year \u2013 we know that from seeing it in Australia and other places – so, we really want to protect people,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
London Ambulance Service calls<\/p>\n
Thursday 27 November – 7,356<\/p>\n
Friday 28 November – 7,608<\/p>\n
Saturday 29 November – 7,409<\/p>\n
Sunday 30 November – 6,776<\/p>\n
(London Ambulance Service normally takes around 5,500 calls on a \u00ab\u00a0typically busy day\u00a0\u00bb)<\/p>\n
NHS England reported 1.7 million people have taken up a free flu vaccination so far this season in London – about 46% of those eligible.<\/p>\n
Who is eligible for the flu jab?<\/p>\n
Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The number of 999 calls in London has risen over the past week, with London Ambulance Service (LAS) reporting its three busiest days of 2025 in a row. The service said the 20% increase included more calls from people with breathing difficulties due to viral infections and respiratory illnesses such as the flu. NHS figures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}