THE NHS is in crisis. Barely a day goes by that does not see a headline on overcrowded wards, cancelled operations and missed Government targets.

The latest sign of our health service in critical condition is firefighters being drafted in to help respond to serious and life-threatening emergency calls.

South Central Ambulance Service says it has faced unprecendented demand this festive period and needed to roll out in full the scheme in December.

But other emergency services cannot be used as a sticking plaster to try to cover up the problems being faced.

While the fire service has assured the public the agreement will not mean it does not respond to fires, not all will be convinced.

SCAS has been desperately looking for ways to tackle its response time woes, from fitting more defibrillators in country villages to appealling for more first responders.

But more must be done to tackle the root cause of this demand.

Winter has not seen temperatures plummet, roads flood or snow fall, so it is hard to see why it has resulted in such chaos for the NHS.

Something is clearly not right and more must be done to understand why there is so much pressure on our services.

There are only so many other places SCAS can turn to help.

It needs first to help itself.