Revealed: Ambulances were called out to prisons once every hour in the past year

EMBARGO: 22.30 Friday 29th December 

• Ambulances have been called out to prisons almost 8,586 times this year, equivalent to almost one an hour

• Some areas have seen more than 2,000 call outs 

• Lib Dems warn Conservative government’s neglect of the prison system is leading to intolerable pressure on the NHS

Ambulances were called out to prisons an average of once an hour over the past year, shocking new figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.

The data, obtained through Freedom of Information requests to ambulance trusts, shows that ambulances were called 8,586 times this year. This is equivalent to nearly one an hour.

In total, ambulances have been called out to prisons 52,425 times in the past five years. The true figure is likely to be even higher as data was provided by nine of 14 ambulance trusts in the UK.

The East of England Trust had the most number of call outs with more than 2,000 in the past year alone and 11,166 in the past five years. South East Coast had the second highest with 1,504 call outs in the past year, followed by South Central with 1,419.

East Midlands Ambulance Trust has seen a shocking increase in prison-related call outs. In 2022, it recorded 844 but that number has spiked up to 1,315 this year, an increase of 56%. Similarly, the North East Ambulance Trust has seen prison-related call outs rising by 9% to 838 in 2023 compared with the previous year.

The Liberal Democrats have warned that the alarmingly high number of ambulance call outs to prisons will lead to further pressure on the NHS in the coming winter crisis and criticised the government for neglecting the prison system. 

The party is calling on ministers to increase the number of staffed beds at NHS hospitals as the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has long called for, and launch a campaign to retain, recruit and train paramedics and other ambulance staff.

Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, Sarah Olney MP said:

“This Conservative government’s neglect of our prison system is placing intolerable pressures on our NHS. If our prisons were safe, these ambulances could be going to help others in need.

“Instead, people are forced to wait in pain, not knowing if an ambulance is going to arrive in time.

“The Conservative party is pushing public service after public service to breaking point, and as one suffers, another is placed under even more pressure. 

“To avoid the tragic scenes of ambulances queuing outside hospitals for hours last winter, the government must urgently increase bed capacity in the NHS to prevent this.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The FOI data can be found here. Some trusts who did respond did not provide complete data for 2018, December 2023, or 2023 as a whole.