Knowing when cold winters and warm summers can reduce Ambulatory Care performance in London

As part of a climate change risk assessment, Public Health England took the initiative to analyse the impact of cold winters and warm summers on the number of ambulance call-outs and ambulance response times in London. This study is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. Initial findings show that there is a clear relationship between air temperature and emergency ambulance calls.

Further research shows that as well as developing operational adaptation methods for ambulance trusts using real time incident modeling, it will be possible to use real-time ambulance response data to feedback timely emergency warnings. For example, the percentage of respiratory or cardiac ambulance calls that are considered life threatening can provide valuable early morbidity information for cold-related or heat-related illnesses.