South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) has declared a critical incident due to high pressures on the service.

The ambulance service declared the critical incident yesterday (July 11).

By declaring an incident, the service is able to seek further support from its partners and alert the wider healthcare system, as well as the public, to its existing challenges in reaching patients quickly.

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SCAS said the incident was declared due to high numbers of 999 calls, rising Covid-19 and other infections amongst staff and the community and the heatwave.

A spokesperson for South Central Ambulance Service said: “We continue to prioritise our response to those patients with life-threatening and serious emergencies but, due to the current levels of pressure we are seeing, there will be delays in responding to other patients with less urgent needs who are assessed as requiring an ambulance response.”

The service urged people not to call 999 back to ask about an estimated time unless the patient’s condition has changed.

As well as this, the SCAS has asked people to seek alternative treatment or advice via NHS 111 online or by calling 111, local urgent care centres or speaking to their GP or local pharmacist.

The spokesperson added: “We would like to thank everyone for your support during this difficult time and we will post further updates on both our social media channels and website.”

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This story was written by Sophie Perry. She joined the team in 2021 as a digital reporter.

You can get in touch with her by emailing: sophie.perry@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @itssophieperry

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