South East Coast ambulance service declares critical incident
The trust says services are under 'sustained pressure'
One of the South's ambulance trusts has declared a critical incident, following more than a week of what it's called 'sustained pressure' on services.
The South East Coast Ambulance Trust (SECAmb) service, which covers West Sussex and part of Hampshire, said that the decision was taken on Monday evening (December 19th) because of issues with 999 and 111 services, which have 'siginficantly impacted' their ability to respond to patients.
In a statement, a SECAmb spokesperson said that declaring a critical incident enabled the service to 'explore options including mutual aid, while focusing all efforts on frontline patient care'.
They added:
"We would like to thank all our staff and volunteers for their hard work and commitment in recent days in what continue to be extremely challenging circumstances.
"We urge the public to continue to call 999 in life-threatening emergencies as we prioritise our response to our most seriously ill and injured patients.
"People can continue to support us by seeking help and advice from alternatives including via NHS 111 Online at 111.nhs.uk, their own GP or by speaking to a pharmacist."
The service is due to be affected by strike action on Wednesday (December 21st), with members of the GMB union walking out in a dispute over pay and conditions.