DRUNKS, unnecessary call-outs, paperwork and potholes are just some of the many headaches for paramedics - as our Health Reporter Amanda Williams found out when she joined an ambulance crew for an overnight shift in Oxford.

The South Central Ambulance Service, which covers Oxfordshire, recently revealed that it had spent £570,000 in January attending 999 calls where no-one needed emergency medical care.

I joined clinical supervisor Phil Bolley and emergency care assistant Claire Hadland for a 12-hour shift in Oxford to see the pressure they and colleagues are under to hit call-out targets, make quick decisions on treatment and try to cope with ever-growing demand for their services.

The first call was to a suspected meningitis case in Cowley. We arrived about five minutes after being alerted by the control room.

The patient, a five-year-old boy, had been complaining of headaches and had been running a high temperature for more than two days.

His mother had become so worried she had called for an ambulance.

After a quick assessment, it was decided he probably did not have meningitis, but the boy was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital as a precaution.

Early in the evening, Mr Bolley predicted most of the call-outs would involve alcohol in some way.

The father-of-four, a paramedic for more than 20 years, said the workload caused by alcohol-related incidents was ‘huge’.

He said: “It could be a domestic, or someone who’s suffering the effects of liver disease. It’s not just the Saturday night issue, it’s the long-term problems associated with drink too.”

Back at their base at the Churchill Hospital, crews told me about incidents involving drunken youngsters.

One crew had just returned from treating a 17-year-old boy who had collapsed.

He told the paramedics he had drunk 10 double vodkas with Red Bull, followed by two beers. He had to be taken to the accident and emergency department at the JR.

Of six calls we attended that night, three patients needed to be taken to hospital but all six required the filling out of a lengthy patient report, each of which took up to 15 minutes to complete.

Mr Bolley said one of the biggest headaches for crews when trying to meet stringent emergency response targets was being called out to see people with non-urgent conditions, who could perhaps have been better treated by another part of the NHS, such as their GP. He said: “We’ve got to spend more money advertising the alternatives to calling an ambulance. A lot of the jobs we go to could well have been treated at a minor injuries unit.

“But often people call us because we’re the only number they can remember and they don’t know where else to go.”

And if you thought it was hard work dodging the potholes left in the county’s roads by the harsh winter, spare a thought for the ambulance crews.

Driving a vehicle packed with life-saving medical equipment at speeds of up to 80mph on a 999 call is a tricky business, and there are some roads they have to steer clear of if they are to avoid damaging the ambulance and still reach critically-ill patients quickly and safely.

The shift revealed just some of the demands put on paramedics, and the variety of the work they do 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but also brought home that there are times when people should think about whether there may be other ways to get treatment before dialling 999.