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Filmed in spring 2024, Ambulance returns to London, which has the UK’s biggest and busiest ambulance service. We reveal how frontline staff grapple to deliver the care to the nine million people of the capital. Despite unrelenting pressure and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, we see them go above and beyond in the most testing of times.

As we join the weekend shift in north east London, crewmates David and Lex are booking on for the day, when they’re interrupted by a paramedic panic alarm blaring out on the open radio channel for all to hear – an ambulance crew have been attacked while treating a patient.

As the team in dispatch send help to the crew in distress, David and Lex arrive to their first patient of the day – a 59-year-old female with difficulty in breathing. On scene, they discover the patient is living in a flat covered in black mould, which is exacerbating her symptoms. After safely transporting the patient to hospital, David, originally from Devon, describes his efforts to go the extra mile to help those living in poor conditions: 'In east London especially, there’s a lot of poverty. Whenever we go to see a patient, it’s quite common now for me to just check to see if the fridge is working.'

At Roman Road Market, a stallholder has been assaulted after asking a member of the public to clean up their dog’s mess. Crewmates Penny and Ryan are dispatched, and after bandaging the patient’s broken nose, he shares how he became a stallholder and how the market has changed.

Meanwhile, the tactical operations centre, which manages complex and difficult emergencies, is responding to an ongoing emergency call for multiple patients who have been sprayed with an unknown chemical. Abi, who works on the tactical response unit, is specially trained in chemical and multi-casualty incidents and is immediately dispatched.

While Abi assesses the patients' injuries, the tactical operations centre receive another urgent call to a multi-storey block of flats in Erith, where a flat is on fire. The decision is made to declare a major incident, which takes priority. It means Abi must leave her patients and race to the scene in Erith to help triage and co-ordinate care. For Abi, the incident serves as a harrowing reminder of the Grenfell Tower fire: 'I remember feeling a bit scared because I’d never even considered that I would face anything like that. Everyone remembers the image of night-time cityscape with the towering inferno in the middle of it. I don’t think that’s an image that will ever leave anyone’s mind.'

In the Hackney area alone, there are now 17 patients waiting for an ambulance. Crewmates Jodene and Claudia are dispatched to a patient who is vomiting. On arrival, they learn the patient is HIV-positive and has battled with drug addiction for 30 years.

Immediately on clearing from the multi-storey flat fire, tactical response paramedic Abi is dispatched to a category 1 – the most life-threatening – for a 51-year-old male patient, unconscious and barely breathing. On the way, Abi realises it is a patient who she attended earlier that week.

In control, the pressure continues to build as the team receive a call from the police requesting an ambulance to attend a female patient who has been attacked with a brick in Hackney. Despite her injuries, the patient speaks of her love for the multicultural area she lives in.

Filmed in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, the episode follows frontline London Ambulance Service staff, witnessing the unique challenges that come with caring for a city of nine million, where the nation’s struggles are often amplified. We discover how London is a place that people are drawn to, where the different communities and cultures come together to find opportunity and hope despite difficult times.