IT WASN’T just the weather that was changeable over the Easter weekend.

Demand on the West Midlands’ ambulance service varied dramatically over the four-day weekend, with 12.5 per cent fewer calls on Saturday, April 19 in the West Mercia region than the previous year, but 11.5 per cent more the following day.

Overall 10,821 emergency calls were made to West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) from Good Friday to Easter Monday, an increase of 1.7 per cent on the same period in 2013.

A WMAS spokesman said the organisation puts a great amount of planning into ensuring the right amount of resources are available at the right times.

“In the main, we got it about right, but the swings in demand were really quite severe and were different across the area," he said.

“We ensured we had additional staff working to meet the predicted demand.

"While many people were enjoying the four day break our staff were working hard to ensure patients that needed our help got the highest standards of clinical care in often difficult situations.

“Having such swings in the demand does make it difficult for our crews but once again they pulled out all of the stops to make sure patients got a good level of service, even when it got really busy.”

This year also saw a slight decrease in people visiting A&E in Worcestershire and a 15 per cent drop in admissions compared to Easter weekend last year.