To wonder if as many ambulances are called out over the Christmas period

For some yes. For others no. There will be people who don’t want to spoil Xmas so put up with the chest pain, or the breathlessness, etc. and then die of a heart attack, a PE, etc. there will be women who haven’t felt the baby move but put it off to Boxing Day as they have lunch to cook for everyone today and then find out their baby has died.

It’s just proof that most people who attend A+E don’t need to. If you really needed to go, it being Christmas wouldn’t stop you.
If only people used that method all year, the emergency departments wouldn’t be in such a mess.

Years ago, I had to take my DC to A&E on Christmas eve. I was told we'd 'picked'the best day in the year to go because it was the quietest.

My DH was admitted to hospital Wednesday night, the hospital was full and he was on a trolly >24hrs. A&E was fairly painless tho, 4 hours in total before being moved to (chaotic) ward

I had to call 111 on Xmas Day a couple of years ago - no waiting in a queue and was at the out of hours GP within an hour. Brilliant, except I was half way through dinner prep and too ill/tired to do anything else when I got back, so there was a lot of wasted food.

a few years before that, had to call an ambulance on Boxing Day for an elderly grandparent with cancer and a few other things going on. Equally fast service which I’ve never forgotten.

I’m a nurse and on shift in my hospital and 7 patients in a&e which is unheard of! All pretty much elderly and none of the younger ones you normally get sat in a&e with their mates or family outings! It’s crazy how much attendance changes over Christmas. But new year is a different kettle of fish 😄

It’s definitely calmer tonight but we don’t say the ‘Q’ word!

Everyone comes in ill on Boxing Day.

I guess there's got to be a few who meet up with relatives/friends who then say "omg, you need that looked at NOW!!"

Bloody loads. I did the late shift at my clinic today and the last 5 people were all people with horrible infections who had sat on them for weeks and then decided they had better come in becsuse its christmas. I had to admit all of them. Why do people sit on infections for weeks then come in in a state on christmas eve. I was supposed to come home at 5. I got home at 9pm.

My friend works in paeds a&e and typically it's much quieter on Christmas Eve / Day / Boxing Day. If you think how many people are referred to A&E by 111 when it not really needed or because they can't get GP appt it makes sense. Also people are mostly chilling at home rather than playing sports or whatever that might end up with a broken bone.

On the other side, all the people coming in are REALLY ill.

My relative is working in a and e tonight and says they are very quiet. Had 40 patients in the whole department at 10pm compared to a normal day of 120+ at anyone time.
The same during the doctors strike too. It makes you wonder where all these people are. Are there really that many time wasters or are some suffering in silence at home?

We had to go to our local children’s hospital a&e early one boxing day morning a few years back as our DD had fell down the bottom few stairs and had a concussion. It was the emptiest I’ve ever seen it (and with 3DC one of whom is accident prone and another who has had a few illnesses resulting in breathing difficulties we have been there a fair few times!) She stayed in for a few hours for observation, got given a Christmas present and lots of sausages - for months after she kept asking to go ‘back to the place with the sausages’ !

I can imagine in-person A&E attendance numbers might be lower.

Ambulances might be very busy. All the normal health problems they get called out to then the help needed for a seasonal surge in incidents related to alcohol.

I had to call an ambulance on 28th December last year. The ambulance crew told me they'd had a very quiet 3 days, but the day I called it had become really busy again, and we waited for 10 hours in the ambulance outside A&E.